Bulgaria

emerging democracyIndependence 22 September 1908 (from Ottoman Empire)

Bulgaria as the 1994 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 122 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
LocationBalkan State, Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between
1994

Every edition of Bulgaria

Populationas each edition published it
8.8 million July 1994 est. · 8.93m in 1990
Population growth% a year
-0.32% 1994 est. · -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
1.71 children per woman 1994 est. · 1.9 in 1990
Infant mortalitydeaths per 1,000 live births
12 deaths per 1,000 live births 1994 est. · 13 in 1990
GDP per capitaeach edition's own dollars
$3,800 1993 est. · $3,800 in 1993
GDP real growth% a year
-4% 1993 est. · -7.7% in 1993

Geography

Balkan State, Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between | Romania and Turkey

24 fields
Land boundaries
1,808km
total · Greece 494 km, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 148 km, Romania 608 km, Serbia and Montenegro 318 km (all with Serbia), Turkey 240 km
Irrigated land
10sq km
(1989 est.)

Location

Balkan State, Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Romania and Turkey

Map references

Africa, Arctic Region, Ethnic Groups in Eastern Europe, Europe, Middle East, Standard Time Zones of the World

total area

110,910 sq km

land area

110,550 sq km

comparative area

slightly larger than Tennessee

contiguous zone

24 nm

exclusive economic zone

200 nm

territorial sea

12 nm

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

arable land

34%

permanent crops

3%

meadows and pastures

18%

forest and woodland

35%

other

10%

current issues

  • air pollution from industrial emissions;
  • rivers polluted from raw sewage, heavy metals, detergents;
  • deforestation;
  • forest damage from air pollution;
  • soil contamination from heavy metals from metallurgical plants and industrial wastes

natural hazards

subject to earthquakes, landslides

international agreements

  • party to - Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur, Antarctic Treaty, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands;
  • signed, but not ratified - Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Law of the Sea

Note

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

People

21 fields
Population
8,799,986
(July 1994 est.)growth rate: -0.32% (1994 est.)

Per 1,000 population(1994 est.)

Birth
11.71Death
11.38Net migration
-3.49

Ethnic divisions

Bulgarian 85.3%Turk 8.5%Gypsy 2.6%Macedonian 2.5%Armenian 0.3%Russian 0.2%other 0.6%
Labor force
4.3million
Literacy
15and over can read and write
age · (1970 est.)

Infant mortality rate

12 deaths/1,000 live births (1994 est.)

total population

73.24 years

male

69.99 years

female

76.67 years (1994 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.71 children born/woman (1994 est.)

noun

Bulgarian(s)

adjective

Bulgarian

Religions

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

Languages

Bulgarian; secondary languages closely correspond to ethnic breakdown

total population

93%

male

NA%

female

NA%

by occupation

industry 33%, agriculture 20%, other 47% (1987)

Government

Emerging democracy

31 fields

Legislature, 240 seatsone dot, one seat

UDF 110BSP 106Movement for Rights and Freedoms 24

conventional long form

Republic of Bulgaria

conventional short form

Bulgaria

Type

emerging democracy

Capital

Sofia

Administrative divisions

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

Independence

22 September 1908 (from Ottoman Empire)

National holiday

Independence Day 3 March (1878)

Constitution

adopted 12 July 1991

Suffrage

18 years of age; universal and compulsory

chief of state

  • President Zhelyu Mitev ZHELEV (since 1 August 1990);
  • Vice President (vacant);
  • election last held January 1992;
  • results - Zhelyu ZHELEV was elected by popular vote

head of government

  • Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) Lyuben Borisov BEROV (since 30 December 1992);
  • Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Deputy Prime Minister) Evgeniy MATINCHEV (since 30 December 1992)

cabinet

Council of Ministers; elected by the National Assembly

National Assembly (Narodno Sobranie)

  • last held 13 October 1991;
  • results - UDF (and breakaway factions) 34%, BSP 33%, MRF 7.5%;
  • seats - (240 total) UDF 110, BSP 106, Movement for Rights and Freedoms 24

note

the UDF split in March 1993 to form the New Union for Democracy (NUD) with 18 seats, and the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) with 92 seats

Judicial branch

Supreme Court, Constitutional Court

Political parties and leaders

  • Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Filip DIMITROV, chairman, an alliance of approximately 20 pro-Democratic parties including United Democratic Center, Democratic Party, Radical Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Union, Alternative Social Liberal Party, Republican Party, Civic Initiative Movement, and about a dozen other groups;
  • Movement for Rights and Freedoms (mainly ethnic Turkish party) (MRF), Ahmed DOGAN, chairman;
  • Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Zhan VIDENOV, chairman;
  • New Union for Democracy (NUD), Dimitar LUDZHEV, chairman

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);
  • Nationwide Committee for Defense of National Interests;
  • Peasant Youth League;
  • Bulgarian Agrarian National Union - United (BZNS);
  • Bulgarian Democratic Center;
  • "Nikola Petkov" Bulgarian Agrarian National Union;
  • Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Union of Macedonian Societies (IMRO-UMS);
  • numerous regional, ethnic, and national interest groups with various agendas

Member of

ACCT (observer), BIS, BSEC, CCC, CE, CEI (participating), CSCE, EBRD, ECE, FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, IDA, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT (nonsignatory user), INTERPOL, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, LORCS, NACC, NAM (guest), NSG, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNTAC, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

chief of mission

Ambassador Ognyan Raytchev PISHEV

chancery

1621 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone

(202) 387-7969

FAX

(202) 234-7973

chief of mission

Ambassador William D. MONTGOMERY

embassy

1 Saborna Street, Sofia

mailing address

Unit 25402, Sofia; APO AE 09213

telephone

[359] (2) 88-48-01 through 05

FAX

[359] (2) 80-19-77

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

The Bulgarian economy continued its painful adjustment in 1993 from | the misdirected development undertaken during four decades of | Communist rule.

26 fields
GDP per capita, PPP
$3,800
(1993 est.)
Real growth rate
-4%
(1993 est.)industrial production growth: growth rate -10% (1993 est.); accounts for about 37% of GDP (1990)

Overview

The Bulgarian economy continued its painful adjustment in 1993 from the misdirected development undertaken during four decades of Communist rule. Many aspects of a market economy have been put in place and have begun to function, but much of the economy, especially the industrial sector, has yet to re-establish market links lost with the collapse of other centrally planned Eastern European economies.

The prices of many imported industrial inputs, especially energy products, have risen markedly, and falling real wages have not sufficed to restore competitiveness. The trade deficit, exacerbated by UN trade sanctions against neighboring Serbia, grew in late 1993, accelerating the depreciation of the lev.

These difficulties in adjusting to the challenges of a more open system, together with a severe drought, caused nonagricultural output to fall by perhaps 8% in 1993. The government plans more extensive privatization in 1994 to improve the management of state enterprises and to encourage foreign investment in ailing state firms.

Bulgaria resumed payments on its $10 billion in commercial debt in 1993 following the negotiation of a 50% write-off. An IMF program and second agreement with official creditors on Bulgaria's smaller amount of official debt are required to close the debt deal.

National product

GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $33.9 billion (1993 est.)

revenues

$14 billion

expenditures

$17.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $610 million (1993 est.)

Exports

$3.5 billion (f.o.b., 1991)

commodities

  • machinery and equipment 30.6%;
  • agricultural products 24%;
  • manufactured consumer goods 22.2%;
  • fuels, minerals, raw materials, and metals 10.5%;
  • other 12.7% (1991)

partners

  • former CEMA countries 57.7% (USSR 48.6%, Poland 2.1%, Czechoslovakia 0.9%);
  • developed countries 26.3% (Germany 4.8%, Greece 2.2%);
  • less developed countries 15.9% (Libya 2.1%, Iran 0.7%) (1991)

Imports

$2.8 billion (f.o.b., 1991)

commodities

  • fuels, minerals, and raw materials 58.7%;
  • machinery and equipment 15.8%;
  • manufactured consumer goods 4.4%;
  • agricultural products 15.2%;
  • other 5.9%

partners

  • former CEMA countries 51.0% (former USSR 43.2%, Poland 3.7%);
  • developed countries 32.8% (Germany 7.0%, Austria 4.7%);
  • less developed countries 16.2% (Iran 2.8%, Libya 2.5%)

External debt

$12 billion (1993)

capacity

11,500,000 kW

production

45 billion kWh

consumption per capita

5,070 kWh (1992)

Industries

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

Agriculture

  • 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

Illicit drugs

transshipment point for southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route

Currency

1 lev (Lv) = 100 stotinki

Exchange rates

  • leva (Lv) per US$1 - 32.00 (January 1994), 24.56 (January 1993), 17.18 (January 1992), 16.13 (March 1991), 0.7446 (November 1990), 0.84 (1989);
  • note - floating exchange rate since February 1991

Fiscal year

calendar year

Communications

17 fields

Networkskm

Railroads
4,300Inland waterways
470 (1987)
Railroads: , all government owned (1987); 4,055 km 1.435-meter standard gauge, 245 km narrow gauge; 917 km double track; 2,640 km electrified

Railroads

  • 4,300 km total, all government owned (1987);
  • 4,055 km 1.435-meter standard gauge, 245 km narrow gauge;
  • 917 km double track;
  • 2,640 km electrified

total

36,930 km

paved

33,902 km (including 276 km expressways)

unpaved

earth 3,028 km (1991)

Pipelines

crude oil 193 km; petroleum products 525 km; natural gas 1,400 km (1992)

Ports

coastal - Burgas, Varna, Varna West; inland - Ruse, Vidin, and Lom on the Danube

Merchant marine

111 ships (1,000 GRT and over) totaling 1,225,996 GRT/1,829,642 DWT, bulk 48, cargo 30, chemical carrier 4, container 2, oil tanker 16, passenger-cargo 1, railcar carrier 2, roll-on/roll-off cargo 6, short-sea passenger 2

note

Bulgaria owns 1 ship (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 8,717 DWT operating under Liberian registry

total

487

usable

85

with permanent-surface runways

32

with runways over 3659 m

0

with runways 2,440-3,659 m

21

with runways 1,060-2,439 m

36

note

a C-130 can land on a 1,060-m airstrip

Telecommunications

  • extensive but antiquated transmission system of coaxial cable and microwave radio relay;
  • 2.6 million telephones;
  • direct dialing to 36 countries;
  • phone density is 29 phones per 100 persons (1992);
  • almost two-thirds of the lines are residential;
  • 67% of Sofia households have phones (November 1988);
  • telephone service is available in most villages;
  • broadcast stations - 20 AM, 15 FM, and 29 TV, with 1 Soviet TV repeater in Sofia;
  • 2.1 million TV sets (1990);
  • 92% of country receives No. 1 television program (May 1990);
  • 1 satellite ground station using Intersputnik;
  • INTELSAT is used through a Greek earth station

Defense Forces

Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Frontier Troops, Internal | Troops

3 fields
Defense expenditures
5.77billion leva
NA% of GDP (1993 est.); note - conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using the current exchange rate could produce misleading results

Branches

Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Frontier Troops, Internal Troops

Manpower availability

  • males age 15-49 2,175,921;
  • fit for military service 1,816,484;
  • reach military age (19) annually 70,306 (1994 est.)

Central Intelligence Agency. “Bulgaria.” The World Factbook 1994. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/bulgaria/1994.

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