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The People Population: 8.38 million (1996) Men: 48.9% Women: 51.1% Capital: Sofia 1.2 million Growth rate: - 0.02% (between 1985 and 1994) - one of the lowest in the world Life expectancy: 71 years Men: 61 years Women: 75 years Average age: 38 years Rural: 32.2% Urban: 67.8% Age distribution: Workforce: 43.9% Unemployed: 11.1% Students: 2.6% Retired: 13.1% |
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| Demography Contemporary ethnic Bulgarians, about 85.3% of the population, are a mixture of the Slavs already settled in the Balkans and the Bulgars who came to the area from Central Asia during the Western Roman Empire and established a strong state in the land of the Thracians. They are almost exclusively Bulgarian Orthodox Christians, and speak Bulgarian, a Slavic language written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Muslim ethnic Turks, the human residue of 500 years of Ottoman rule, are the largest minority, making up 8.5% of the population. Many consider Turkish to be their first language. About 2.6% of the population are Gypsies, about half of whom are Christian and half Muslim. There are small ethnic groups of Armenians, Macedonians, Jews, Russians and Greeks making up for the remaining 3.6%. All Bulgarians were required to learn Russian at school until 1989; most prefer not to speak it, and many will not. English is the most common second language, especially among the young, then German and French, distantly followed by Italian and Spanish. |
| Religion and Ethnic Groups The official religion in Bulgaria is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. In the Republic of Bulgaria there is full freedom of religion. This democratic concept is also written in the Bulgarian Constitution. Ethnic groups: Bulgarians - 88.3%, Turks - 8.0%, Gypsies - 2.6%, Armenians - 0.3%, Russians – 0.2%, others – 0.6%. |
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