Bulgaria

emerging democracy, continuing significant Communist party influenceIndependence 22 September 1908 (from Ottoman Empire)

Bulgaria as the 1991 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 71 fields, one of 36 editions from 1990 to 2025.

field in that editiontext changed from the edition beforenot in that editionthe open editionEach field below ends in its editions, 1990 to 2025. Point at a year above to follow it down.

CapitalSofia

Area110,910 km2

Populationas each edition published it

8.91 million July 1991 · 8.93m in 1990

Population growth% a year

Not in this edition -0.39% in 1993

Median ageyears

Not in this edition 40.5 yrs in 2003

Life expectancyyears at birth

Not in this edition 72.82 yrs in 1993

Fertility ratechildren per woman

1.9 children per woman 1991 · 1.9 in 1990

Infant mortalitydeaths per 1,000 live births

13 deaths per 1,000 live births 1991 · 13 in 1990

GDP per capitaeach edition's own dollars

Not in this edition $3,800 in 1993

GDP real growth% a year

Not in this edition -7.7% in 1993

Geography

11 fields

Total area

110,910km2

land area: 110,550 km2Comparative area: slightly larger than Tennessee

Land boundaries

1,881km total

Greece 494 km, Romania 608 km, Turkey 240 km, Yugoslavia 539 km

Coastline

354 km Contiguous zone: 24 nm;
Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm;
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Disputes

Macedonia question with Greece and Yugoslavia

Climate

temperate;
cold, damp winters;
hot, dry summers

Terrain

mostly mountains with lowlands in north and south

Natural resources

bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, coal, timber, arable land

Land use

arable land 34%;
permanent crops 3%;
meadows and pastures 18%;
forest and woodland 35%;
other 10%;
includes irrigated 11%

Environment

subject to earthquakes, landslides;
deforestation;
air pollution

Note

strategic location near Turkish Straits; controls key land routes from Europe to Middle East and Asia

People

14 fields

Population

8,910,622

(July 1991), growth rate - 0.2% (1991)

Per 1,000 population(1991)

Birth

13Death

Ethnic divisions

Bulgarian 85.3%Turk 8.5%Gypsy 2.6%Macedonian 2.5%Armenian 0.3%Russian 0.2%other 0.6%

Literacy

93%

(male NA%, female NA%) age 15 and over can read and write (1970 est.)

Nationality

noun--Bulgarian(s); adjective--Bulgarian

Religion

Bulgarian Orthodox 85%;
Muslim 13%;
Jewish 0.8%;
Roman Catholic 0.5%;
Uniate Catholic 0.2%;
Protestant, Gregorian-Armenian, and other 0.5%

Language

Bulgarian; secondary languages closely correspond to ethnic breakdown

Labor force

4,300,000; industry 33%, agriculture 20%, other 47% (1987)

Organized labor

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (KNSB);
Edinstvo (Unity) People's Trade Union (splinter confederation from KNSB);
Podkrepa (Support) Labor Confederation, legally registered in January 1990

Government

Emerging democracy, continuing significant Communist party influence

18 fields

National Assembly, 400 seats, elected 10 and 17 June 1990seats by party

BSP 211UDF 144Rights and Freedoms Movement 23Agrarian Party 16independents and other 3

Type

emerging democracy, continuing significant Communist party influence

Administrative divisions

9 provinces (oblasti, singular--oblast); Burgas, Grad Sofiya, Khaskovo, Lovech, Mikhaylovgrad, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Sofiya, Varna

Constitution

16 May 1971, effective 18 May 1971; a new constitution is likely to be adopted in 1991

Legal system

based on civil law system, with Soviet law influence;
judicial review of legislative acts in the State Council;
has accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

National holiday

Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire, 3 March (1878)

Executive branch

president, chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier), three deputy chairmen of the Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers

Legislative branch

unicameral National Assembly (Narodno Sobranie)

Judicial branch

Supreme Court Chief of State--President Zhelyu ZHELEV (since 1 August 1990);
Head of Government--Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) Dimitur POPOV (since 19 December 1990);
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Aleksandur TOMOV (since 19 December 1990);
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Viktor VULKOV (since 19 December 1990);
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Dimitur LUDZHEV (since 19 December 1990);

Political parties and leaders

government--Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), Aleksandur LILOV, chairman;
opposition--Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Filip DIMITROV, chairman, consisting of Nikola Petkov Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, Milan DRENCHEV, secretary of Permanent Board;
Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, Petur DERTLIEV;
Green Party;
Christian Democrats;
Radical Democratic Party;
Rights and Freedoms Movement (pro-Muslim party), Ahmed DOGAN;
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BZNS), Viktor VULKOV

Suffrage

universal and compulsory at age 18 Chairman of the State Council--last held 1 August 1990 (next to be held May 1991);
results--Zhelyo ZHELEV was elected by the National Assembly;
National Assembly--last held 10 and 17 June 1990 (next to be held in autumn 1991);
results--BSP 48%, UDF 32%;
seats--(400 total) BSP 211, UDF 144, Rights and Freedoms Movement 23, Agrarian Party 16, Nationalist parties 3, independents and other 3

Communists

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), 501,793 members

Other political or pressure groups

Ecoglasnost;
Podkrepa (Support) Labor Confederation;
Fatherland Union;
Bulgarian Democratic Youth (formerly Communist Youth Union);
Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (KNSB);
Committee for Defense of National Interests;
Peasant Youth League;
National Coalition of Extraparliamentary Political Forces;
numerous regional, ethnic, and national interest groups with various agendas

Member of

BIS, CCC, CSCE, ECE, FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBEC, ICAO, IIB, ILO, IMO, INMARSAT, IOC, ISO, ITU, LORCS, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation

Ambassador Ognyan PISHEV;
Chancery at 1621 22nd Street NW, Washington DC 20008;
telephone (202) 387-7969;
US--Ambassador H. Kenneth HILL;
Embassy at 1 Alexander Stamboliski Boulevard, Sofia (mailing address is APO New York 09213-5740);
telephone [359] (2) 88-48-01 through 05

Flag

three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and red;
the national emblem formerly on the hoist side of the white stripe has been removed--it contained a rampant lion within a wreath of wheat ears below a red five-pointed star and above a ribbon bearing the dates 681 (first Bulgarian state established) and 1944 (liberation from Nazi control)

Economy

Growth in the lackluster Bulgarian economy fell to the 2% annual level in the 1980s.

16 fields

Inflation, consumer prices

100%

(1990 est.)

Unemployment rate

(1990 est.)

External debt

$10billion

(1990)

Budget

Revenues

$26 billionExpenditures

$28 billion

expenditures, including capital expenditures of $NA billion (1988)

Growth in the lackluster Bulgarian economy fell to the 2% annual level in the 1980s. By 1990 Sofia's foreign debt had skyrocketed to over $10 billion--giving a debt service ratio of more than 40% of hard currency earnings and leading the regime to declare a moratorium on its hard currency payments.

The post-Zhivkov regime faces major problems of renovating an aging industrial plant; coping with worsening energy, food, and consumer goods shortages; keeping abreast of rapidly unfolding technological developments; investing in additional energy capacity (the portion of electric power from nuclear energy reached over one-third in 1990);

and motivating workers, in part by giving them a share in the earnings of their enterprises. A major decree of January 1989 summarized and extended the government's economic restructuring efforts, which include a partial decentralization of controls over production decisions and foreign trade.

In October 1990 the Lukanov government proposed an economic reform program based on a US Chamber of Commerce study. It was never instituted because of a political stalemate between the BSP and the UDF. The new Popov government launched a similar reform program in January 1991, but full implementation has been slowed by continuing political disputes.

GNP

$47.3 billion, per capita $5,300; real growth rate - 6.0% (1990)

Exports

$16.0 billion (f.o.b., 1989);
commodities--machinery and equipment 60.5%;
agricultural products 14.7%;
manufactured consumer goods 10.6%;
fuels, minerals, raw materials, and metals 8.5%;
other 5.7%;
partners--Communist countries 82.5% (USSR 61%, GDR 5.5%, Czechoslovakia 4.9%);
developed countries 6.8% (FRG 1.2%, Greece 1.0%);
less developed countries 10.7% (Libya 3.5%, Iraq 2.9%)

Imports

$15.0 billion (f.o.b., 1989);
commodities--fuels, minerals, and raw materials 45.2%;
machinery and equipment 39.8%;
manufactured consumer goods 4.6%;
agricultural products 3.8%;
other 6.6%;
partners--Communist countries 80.5% (USSR 57.5%, GDR 5.7%), developed countries 15.1% (FRG 4.8%, Austria 1.6%);
less developed countries 4.4% (Libya 1.0%, Brazil 0.9%)

Industrial production

growth rate - 10.7% (1990); accounts for about 50% of GDP

Electricity

11,500,000 kW capacity; 45,000 million kWh produced, 5,040 kWh per capita (1990)

Industries

machine and metal building,food processing, chemicals, textiles, building materials, ferrous and nonferrous metals

Agriculture

accounts for 15% of GNP;
climate and soil conditions support livestock raising and the growing of various grain crops, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and tobacco;
more than one-third of the arable land devoted to grain;
world's fourth-largest tobacco exporter;
surplus food producer

Economic aid

donor--$1.6 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-89)

Currency

lev (plural--leva); 1 lev (Lv) = 100 stotinki

Exchange rates

leva (Lv) per US$1--16.13 (March 1991), 0.7446 (November 1990), 0.84 (1989), 0.82 (1988), 0.90 (1987), 0.95 (1986), 1.03 (1985);
note--floating exchange rate since February 1990

Fiscal year

calendar year

Communications

9 fields

Merchant marine, 112 ships by type

short-sea passenger 2cargo 33container 2passenger-cargo training 1roll-on/roll-off 6petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker 18chemical carrier 1railcar carrier 2bulk; Bulgaria owns 3 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 51,035 DWT operating under Liberian registry 47112 ships (1,000 GRT and over) totaling 1,227,817 GRT/1,860,294 DWT

Networkskm

Highways

36,908 (1987)Railroads

4,300Inland waterways

470 (1987)

Highways: ; 33,535 km hard surface (including 242 km superhighways); 3,373 km earth roads · Railroads: , all government owned (1987); 4,055 km 1.435-meter standard gauge, 245 km narrow gauge; 917 km double track; 2,510 km electrified