Urban Concentration and Rural Decline: A Closer Look at Bulgaria’s Municipal Demographics

As of December 31, 2024, Bulgaria is administratively divided into 28 "oblasts" (another word for regions) and 265 municipalities, encompassing a total of 3,041 separate mayoralties. Additionally, the Sofia Municipality and the cities of Plovdiv and Varna are administratively and territorially divided into regions. The country comprises 5,256 settlements, of which 257 are cities/towns and 4,999 are villages. There are also 166 settlement formations, 8 of national importance and 158 of local significance, according to data released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

The average area of an oblast in Bulgaria is 3,964 square kilometers. The largest oblasts by territory are Burgas, Sofia, Blagoevgrad, and Plovdiv, while the smallest are Pernik, Gabrovo, and Sofia (capital). Despite being the smallest in area, Sofia (capital) is the most populous oblast, with 1,295,931 residents. No other oblast surpasses the one-million mark in population. In contrast, Vidin oblast has the smallest population, numbering just 70,542.

Sofia Municipality is the largest municipality (or "obshtina" in Bulgarian) in the country by population. Apart from it, there are seven other municipalities with populations exceeding 100,000 – Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Ruse, Sliven, and Pleven. Together, these eight municipalities account for 41.1% of the country's total population. At the other end of the spectrum, 145 municipalities have fewer than 10,000 residents, representing 12.3% of the total population. The smallest municipality is Treklyano in Kyustendil district, with a population of 522, followed by Boynitsa in Vidin oblast, with 712 inhabitants.

In terms of area, the average size of a municipality in Bulgaria is 419 square kilometers. Sliven is the largest municipality by territory. There are seven other municipalities with areas exceeding 1,000 square kilometers – Stolichna (Sofia), Dobrich-Selska, Tundzha (Yambol Oblast), Samokov (Sofia Oblast), Sredets (Burgas Oblast), Stara Zagora, and Karlovo (Plovdiv Oblast). Chelopech in Sofia Oblast is the smallest municipality by area. Alongside it, ten more municipalities cover less than 100 square kilometers, including Nikolaevo (Stara Zagora Oblast), Yambol, Anton (Sofia Oblast), Chavdar (Sofia Oblast), Dolna Banya (Sofia Oblast), Stamboliyski (Plovdiv Oblast), Beloslav (Varna Oblast), Sopot (Plovdiv Oblast), Krichim (Plovdiv Oblast), and Perushtitsa (Plovdiv Oblast).

In nine municipalities – Plovdiv, Dobrich, Yambol, Krichim, Perushtitsa, Koprivshtitsa, Chelopech, Anton, and Chavdar – the municipal center is the sole settlement within their boundaries.

Within Sofia Municipality, the population distribution is notably uneven. Two districts/neighborhoods, Lyulin and Mladost, house 15.6% of the municipality’s residents, each exceeding 100,000 inhabitants. Bankya district, in contrast, is the least populated, with just 11,480 residents, or 0.9% of the municipality’s population.

Plovdiv shows a relatively even population distribution among its districts, ranging from 10.9% in the Zapaden district to 22.4% in the Yuzhen district. In Varna, however, the Primorski district alone accounts for 32.2% of the city’s population and is the only district with over 100,000 residents.

As of December 31, 2024, Bulgaria had 199 settlements without a single resident. The largest number of uninhabited settlements are located in Veliko Tarnovo (66), Gabrovo (64), Kyustendil (10), Kardzhali (9), and Sofia (9). Furthermore, in 1,258 villages, representing 23.9% of the settlements, the population ranges from 1 to 49 residents. Six cities in the country each have populations exceeding 100,000, accounting for 35.5% of Bulgaria’s overall population.