site.btaBy 2030 Bulgaria's Population will Decrease by 1,450,000 People - Demographic Experts

116 LIFESTYLE-DEMOGRAPHY-FORECASTS

By 2030 Bulgaria's Population will Decrease by
1,450,000 People -
Demographic Experts


Sofia, October 18 (BTA) - For the thirty years between 2001 and 2030, Bulgaria's population will decrease by 1,450,000 people, according to forecasts in an analysis about the demographic tendencies in Bulgaria until 2030 done by demographic experts Georgi Burdarov and Nadezhda Ilieva. The document was presented at a BTA-hosted news conference on Thursday.

The analysis also forecasts that in 2030, 42 per cent of the Bulgarian population will live in six cities: Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Bourgas, Rousse and Stara Zagora. Twenty per cent of the country's settlements will be depopulated, against a share of two per cent in 2001. Sixty per cent of the territory of Bulgaria will become a demographic "desert".

Burdarov said that contrary to popular perception, Bulgaria has a normal birth rate for a European country but extremely high negative natural increase. Bulgaria is the only country in the world who in the span of 30 years has not left the three top rankings with the highest negative natural increase. Burdarov argued that the reason for this is not the birth rate but the extremely high mortality rate: 15.5 per one thousand of population. He said that Bulgaria is the country with the highest mortality rate in Europe.