The average Bulgarian today is 2 years older than 10 years ago. He is already a little over 45 and every third lives in one of the six largest cities in the country. This was found by a study in the column "Numbers of the Week" on Nova TV.
The population is melting most sharply in the northwestern and northern central regions of the country, but for another year those who arrived from abroad turn out to be many times more than those who left there.
8,121 people. The population in our country decreased by exactly this much last year. The data are from the National Statistics and were summarized now. This means that there are currently just under 6 million 440 thousand people living in Bulgaria. The male-female ratio remains the same – we are divided relatively equally, as for every 1000 men in our country, there are 1080 women.
The average age of the population is rising, but this is characteristic not only of our country, but of the whole of Europe. In one year the increase is minimal, but if we go back 10 years, we will see that during this period of time the average Bulgarian has become 2 years older.
Children under 15 are 900 thousand, and elderly people over 65 are over one and a half million. They represent a quarter of the population. Most children live in the districts of Sliven, Yambol and Plovdiv, while elderly people are found mainly in Vidin, Gabrovo and Smolyan, where 30% of people are over 65.
This part of us, who are of working age, makes up 58% of the population – This is over 3 million 760 thousand Bulgarians. Over one million 700 thousand are those who have already exceeded the prescribed working age - namely the retirement age of 64 for men and 62 for women. Those who are not yet able to work represent 15%.
We live mainly in cities, although the distribution is quite uneven. Out of over 5200 settlements, there is no life in exactly 199. Nobody lives there. In one third of the municipalities we find a very small part of the population - barely 4%, at the expense of some 8 municipalities, which have gathered over 40% of the country's population on their territory. In terms of the different regions, we can single out two ahead of the rest. Kardzhali, where the population has grown the most in percentage terms, and Vidin, where they are also first, but in decline.
What is happening in the regions? The South-West, on whose territory the capital is located, is home to a third of Bulgarians. Another 20% live in the South-Central, while in the rest the population is distributed relatively evenly. Over the past year, all regions have gained population, except for two that have lost - the North-West and the North-Central.
The cities with a population of over 100 thousand people continue to be six and over a third of Bulgarians live in them. What is changing this year is that the sixth until now - Stara Zagora, displaces the fifth in terms of population, Ruse. In fact, among all of them, only Ruse has decreased in population. All the others have increased it. Sofia, which already exceeds one million and 200 thousand people, has increased the most - by nearly 9 thousand in a year, at least according to statistics. Of the cities with over 300 thousand inhabitants, Varna is growing faster than Plovdiv, although it still holds the lead with 10 thousand more inhabitants. Burgas is fourth.
Migration. Nearly 100 thousand people moved from one settlement to another in our country last year, and in most cases these were women. 41% of these movements were from one city to another, and 26% from a village to a city. Bulgarians who officially left the country are 13 thousand, and their main destinations are Germany, Great Britain and France. For another year, however, those who arrived in Bulgaria are several times more. Nearly 18 thousand of them are returning Bulgarian citizens, 28 thousand are citizens of countries outside the European Union, and 7 thousand are citizens of other member states.