Country Sheet : Bulgaria

Information file

Last Update on 12th June 2024

BULGARIA

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In English - version of 12th June 2024

Geography

Area : 100,910 km²

Borders : 1,808 km (Greece: 494 km, Macedonia: 148 km, Romania: 608 km, Serbia: 318 km, Turkey: 240 km)

Coastline : 354 km (Black Sea)

Capital : Sofia

Official language : Bulgarian

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Population

Population : 6,827,736 inhabitants (2023 est.)

Crude natural change rate : -6.6‰ (2022)

Population repartition: 14.2% of the total population, 23.5% of the total population (2023)

Foreign residents: EU nationals 0.1%, non-EU nationals 1.2% (2019)

Crude net migration rate: -0.3‰ (2023 est.)

First time asylum applicants: 22,510 (2023)

Life expectancy: men 72 years, women 79,6 years (2023)

Religions: Orthodox Christian 64.7%, Muslim 9.8%, other 0.1%, none 3.7%, unspecified 20.7% (2021 est.)

Source : Eurostat, The World Factbook, ECB

Economy

Currency: the Lev (BGN) (fixed exchange rate: 1€ = 1,96 BGN)

GDP: € 93,948 millions (2023)

GDP per capita (PPS): € 7,850 (2023)

GDP growth : 1.8% (2023)

Inflation: 2.5% (April 2024)

Public debt: 23.1% of GDP (Q4 2023)

Unemployment: 4.5% (April 2024)

Stock of foreign direct investment from the entire world: 69.4% of GDP (2022)

Performance sectors: food industry, tourism, petrochemistry

Budget balance: -2.3% of GDP (Q4 2023)

Source : Eurostat, European Commission, Bulgarian National Bank

Political system

Parliamentary Republic (Constitution of 12th July 1991):

Head of State: Rumen Radev (independent supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)), was relected on 14th November 2021. He took office on January 22nd 2022.

Prime Minister: On 30th March 2024, the President of the Republic, Rumen Radev, appointed Dimitar Glavchev as interim Prime Minister following the failure of the agreement reached between the PP-DB (coalition Continuing the Change/Bulgaria Democratic [centre-right]) and GERB [centre-right]).

Monocameral parliamentary system: The National Assembly comprises 240 seats. The deputies are elected for four years by direct universal suffrage according to proportional representation. A threshold of 4% of votes must be reached in order for a political party to be represented in Parliament