site.bta Further Diminishing and Aging of Population in 2016 - Statistics

Further Diminishing and Aging of Population in 2016 - Statistics

Sofia, April 12 (BTA) - As in the previous years, the population in Bulgaria keeps on decreasing and aging; the imbalance in the territorial distribution aggravates; and the number of live births drops, the National Statistical Institute said at a news conference on Wednesday.

There were 65,446 children born in 2016, of whom 64,984 (99.3 per cent) - live born. The number of live births decreased by 966 children or 1.5 per cent compared to the previous year.

As at December 31, 2016 the population of Bulgaria was 7,101,859 persons representing 1.4 per cent of the EU population. Compared to 2015, the country's population decreased by 51,925 persons or 0.7 per cent.

Male population was 3,449,978 (48.6 per cent) and female - 3,651,881 (51.4 per cent) or 1,000 males corresponded to 1,059 females. Males prevailed among the population aged up to 53 years. The number and share of females into the total population have increased among the elderly.

The number of population at working age as of December 31, 201 6 was 4,304 thousand persons or 60.6 per cent of the total population, of whom men were
2,262 thousand and female - 2,042 thousand persons. The population at working age decreased by almost 45 thousand or by 1 per cent compared to the previous year.

There were six towns with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants: Sofia (1,236,047 people), Plovdiv (343,424 people), Varna (335,177), Bourgas (202,766), Rousse (144,936) and Stara Zagora (136,781).

Nearly half of the country population (49.9 per cent) lives in the South West and South Central regions. The North West Region is the most scarcely populated with 770 thousand inhabitants persons or 10.8 per cent of the country's population. The population number decreased compared to 2015 in all statistical regions: the decrease was the highest in the North West Region - by 1.8 per cent and the lowest in the South West Region - 0.3 per cent.

96,014 persons changed their residence within the country in 2016. Among the migrants within the country, 44.5 per cent were male and 55.5 per cent - female. Highest was the share of internal migrants aged 20-39 years (35.6 per cent), followed by persons below 20 years of age (26.7 per cent) and 40-59 years old (17.2 per cent).

A total of 30 570 persons changed their current address in Bulgaria with an address abroad in 2016. Every second emigrant (53.5 per cent) was aged 20 to 39 years. The youngest emigrants (under 20 years) were 14.3 per cent of the total number and the emigrants over 60 years of age - 8.7 per cent. Most preferred destination countries were Germany (21.7 per cent), the United Kingdom (15.5 per cent) and Spain (12.1per cent).

Due to the negative natural increase the country population decreased by 42,596 persons in 2016.