Bulgaria

emerging democracy, diminishing Communist Party influenceIndependence 22 September 1908 (from Ottoman Empire)

Bulgaria as the 1992 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 76 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
1992

Every edition of Bulgaria

Populationas each edition published it
8.87 million July 1992 · 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
1.7 children per woman 1992 · 1.9 in 1990
Infant mortalitydeaths per 1,000 live births
13 deaths per 1,000 live births 1992 · 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

13 fields
Total area
110,910km2
Comparative area: slightly larger than Tennessee
Coastline
354km
Contiguous zone: 24 nmExclusive economic zone: 200 nmTerritorial sea: 12 nm
Land boundaries
1,881km
Greece 494 km, Macedonia 148 km, Romania 608 km, Serbia and Montenegro 318 km, Turkey 240 km

Land area

110,550 km2

Disputes

Macedonia question with Greece and Macedonia

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
8,869,161
(July 1992), growth rate --0.5% (1992)

Per 1,000 population(1992)

Birth
12Death
12

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.)

Net migration rate

--5 migrants/1,000 population (1992)

Infant mortality rate

13 deaths/1,000 live births (1992)

Life expectancy at birth

69 years male, 76 years female (1992)

Total fertility rate

1.7 children born/woman (1992)

Nationality

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

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, diminishing Communist Party influence

20 fields

Long-form name

Republic of Bulgaria

Type

emerging democracy, diminishing Communist Party influence

Capital

Sofia

Administrative divisions

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

Independence

22 September 1908 (from Ottoman Empire)

Constitution

adopted 12 July 1991

National holiday

3 March (1878)

Executive branch

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

Legislative branch

unicameral National Assembly (Narodno Sobranie)

Judicial branch

Supreme Court; Constitutional Court

Leaders

Chief of State:
President Zhelyu ZHELEV (since 1 August 1990)
Head of Government:
  • Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) Filip DIMITROV (since 8 November 1991);
  • Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Deputy Prime Minister) Stoyan GANEV (since 8 November 1991);
  • Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikolay VASILEV (since 8 November 1991)

Political parties and leaders

government:
  • Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Filip DIMITROV, chairman, consisting of United Democratic Center, Democratic Party, Radical Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Union, Alternative Social Liberal Party, Republican Party, Civic Initiative Movement, Union of the Repressed, and about a dozen other groups;
  • Movement for Rights and Freedoms (pro-Muslim party) (MRF), Ahmed DOGAN, chairman, supports UDF but not officially in coalition with it
opposition:
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), Zhan VIDENOV, chairman

Suffrage

universalandcompulsoryatage 18

Elections

National Assembly:
  • last held 13 October 1991;
  • results - BSP 33%, UDF 34%, MRF 7.5%;
  • seats - (240 total) BSP 106, UDF 110, Movement for Rights and Freedoms 24
President:
  • last held 12 January 1992;
  • second round held 19 January 1992;
  • results - Zhelyu ZHELEV was elected by popular vote

Communists

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), 501,793 members; several small Communist parties

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

BIS, CCC, CE, CSCE, EBRD, ECE, FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, IIB, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, IOC, ISO, ITU, LORCS, NACC, NSG, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO

Diplomatic representation

  • Ambassador Ognyan PISHEV;
  • Chancery at 1621 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008;
  • telephone (202) 387-7969
US:
  • Ambassador Hugh Kenneth HILL;
  • Embassy at 1 Alexander Stamboliski Boulevard, Sofia (mailing address is APO AE 09213-5740);
  • telephone [359] (2) 88-48-01 through 05;
  • Embassy has no FAX machine

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.

17 fields
Unemployment rate
10%
(1991 est.)
External debt
$11.2billion
(1991)

Overview

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-Communist government 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. Bulgaria's new government, led by Prime Minister Filip Dimitrov, is strongly committed to economic reform. The previous government, even though dominated by former Communists, had taken the first steps toward dismantling the central planning system, bringing the economy back into balance, and reducing inflationary pressures.

The program produced some encouraging early results, including eased restrictions on foreign investment, increased support from international financial institutions, and liberalized currency trading. Small entrepreneurs have begun to emerge and some privatization of small enterprises has taken place.

The government has passed bills to privatize large state-owned enterprises and reform the banking system. Negotiations on an association agreement with the EC began in late 1991.

GNP

purchasing power equivalent - $36.4 billion, per capita $4,100; real growth rate --22% (1991 est.)

Budget

revenues NA; expenditures NA, including capital expenditures of $NA billion (1991)

Exports

$8.4 billion (f.o.b., 1990)

commodities:
  • machinery and equipment 55.3%;
  • agricultural products 15.0%;
  • manufactured consumer goods 10.0%;
  • fuels, minerals, raw materials, and metals 18.4%;
  • other 1.3% (1990)
partners:
  • former CMEA countries 70.6% (USSR 56.2%, Czechoslovakia 3.9%, Poland 2.5%);
  • developed countries 13.6% (Germany 2.1%, Greece 1.2%);
  • less developed countries 13.1% (Libya 5.8%, Iran 0.5%) (1990)

Imports

$9.6 billion (f.o.b., 1990)

commodities:
  • fuels, minerals, and raw materials 43.7%;
  • machinery and equipment 45.2%;
  • manufactured consumer goods 6.7%;
  • agricultural products 3.8%;
  • other 0.6%
partners:
  • former CMEA countries 70.9% (former USSR 52.7%, Poland 4.1%);
  • developed countries 20.2% (Germany 5.0%, Austria 2.1%);
  • less developed countries 7.2% (Libya 2.0%, Iran 0.7%)

Industrial production

growth rate --14.7% (1990); accounts for about 37% of GNP (1990)

Electricity

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

Industries

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

Agriculture

  • accounts for 22% of GNP (1990);
  • 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

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 - 17.18 (1 January 1992), 16.13 (March 1991), 0.7446 (November 1990), 0.84 (1989), 0.82 (1988), 0.90 (1987);
  • note - floating exchange rate since February 1991

Fiscal year

calendar year

Communications

9 fields

Merchant marine, 110 ships by type

short-sea passenger 2cargo 30container 2passenger-cargo training 1roll-on/roll-off 6petroleum tanker 15chemical carrier 4railcar carrier 2bulk; Bulgaria owns 1 ship (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 8,717 DWT operating under Liberian registry 48110 ships (1,000 GRT and over) totaling 1,234,657 GRT/1,847,759 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

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;
  • 2,510 km electrified

Highways

  • 36,908 km total;
  • 33,535 km hard surface (including 242 km superhighways);
  • 3,373 km earth roads (1987)

Pipelines

crude oil 193 km; petroleum products 418 km; natural gas 1,400 km (1986)

Ports

Burgas, Varna, Varna West; river ports are Ruse, Vidin, and Lom on the Danube

Civil air

86 major transport aircraft

Airports

  • 380 total, 380 usable;
  • about 120 with permanent-surface runways;
  • 20 with runways 2,440-3,659 m;
  • 20 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications

  • extensive radio relay;
  • 2.5 million telephones;
  • direct dialing to 36 countries;
  • phone density is 25 phones per 100 persons;
  • 67% of Sofia households now have a phone (November 1988);
  • 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

Branches

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

Manpower availability

  • males 15-49, 2,181,421;
  • 1,823,678 fit for military service;
  • 65,942 reach military age (19) annually

Defense expenditures

  • exchange rate conversion - 4.413 billion leva, 4.4% of GNP (1991);
  • note - conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using the current exchange rate could produce misleading results

Central Intelligence Agency. “Bulgaria.” The World Factbook 1992. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/bulgaria/1992.

How to cite ← 1991 edition 1993 edition →