Population crisis grows in Bulgaria
Low birth, high death numbers, emigration to Western Europe among major causes for population decline, says official
Professor of Economic and Social Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Nadezhda Ilieva said the main problem the country has to deal with right now is low birthrate and high death rate, in the press release on population data.
Ilieva said, “While the death rate reached 18 per thousand in 2020, it rose to 21.3 per thousand in 2022. Unfortunately, we rank first in this criterion in the European continent. At the same time, we are in the last place in Europe with a birth rate of 8.5 per thousand. ” used the phrases.
Nadejda Ilieva stated that the negative rate of increase in the population crisis in Bulgaria had a share of 67 percent, and that migration abroad also had a share.
Evaluating the data, Sofia University Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Georgi Birdarov said, “The situation observed in the mortality rate in Bulgaria is embarrassing in the European environment. Even in some war-torn countries, there is not such a high mortality rate.” made its assessment.
Birdarov pointed out that all kinds of state policies implemented in the field of population can only produce results after 15-20 years, and he noted that campaigns aimed at preventing young people from migrating abroad did not bring fruitful results.
Migration factor in population decline
In 1989, when the communist era ended, the population of Bulgaria was close to 8 million. Before the old regime fell, Hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian Turks and Muslims were forced to migrate to Türkiye in 1989 due to the Communist Party’s policy of persecution against Turks and Muslims in the country.
After Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union (EU) in 2007, the influx of migration shifted towards EU countries.
According to the data published by the National Statistical Institute (NSI), approximately 2.5 million Bulgarian citizens immigrated to various countries of the world, especially EU members, taking advantage of the right of free movement after 2007.
In the last census conducted in 2021 in Bulgaria which is one of the poorest members of the EU, the population of the country was announced as 6 million 520 thousand.
