Country Sheet : Bulgaria

Information file

Last Update on 12th May 2026

BULGARIA

PDF

In English - version of 12th May 2026

Geography

Area : 100,910 km²

Borders : 1,808 km (Greece: 494 km, Macedonia: 148 km, Romania: 608 km, Serbia: 318 km, Turkey: 240 km)

Coastline : 354 km (Black Sea)

Capital : Sofia

Official language : Bulgarian

Flag

Population

Population : 6,437,360 inhabitants (2025 est.)

Crude natural change rate : -7,3‰ (2024)

Population repartition: 14% of the total population < 15y , 23.9% of the total population > 65y (2025)

Foreign residents: EU nationals 0.4%, non-EU nationals 1.4% (2024)

Crude net migration rate: 6,1‰ (2024 est.)

First time asylum applicants: 3,895 (2025)

Life expectancy: men 72,2 years, women 79,5 years (2025)

Religions: Orthodox Christian 64.7%, Muslim 9.8%, other 0.1%, none 3.7%, unspecified 20.7% (2021 est.)

Source : Eurostat, The World Factbook, ECB

Economy

Currency: Euro

GDP: € 116 billion (2025)

GDP per capita (PPS): € 29 929 (2025)

GDP growth : 3% (2025)

Inflation: 3.3% (February 2026)

Public debt: 25,55% of GDP (2025)

Unemployment: 5.3% (April 2026)

Stock of foreign direct investment from the entire world: 55,6% of GDP (2024)

Performance sectors: food industry, tourism, petrochemistry

Budget balance: -2.9% of GDP (2025)

Source : Eurostat, European Commission, Bulgarian National Bank

Political system

Parliamentary Republic (Constitution of 12th July 1991):

Head of State: Iliana Iotova (Bulgarian Socialist Party), former vice-president under Rumen Radev, took office on 23 January 2026 following his resignation in December 2025. She is the first woman in the country’s history to hold this position.

Prime Minister: Roumen Radev was appointed on May 8, 2026. President of Bulgaria from 2017 to 2026, he won the early elections with 44% of the vote. A former fighter pilot and memer of the Communist Party, he resigned from his post as Head of State to devote himself to a campaign for the Parliamentary elections, centered on the fight against corruption.

Monocameral parliamentary system: The National Assembly comprises 240 seats. The deputies are elected for four years by direct universal suffrage according to proportional representation. A threshold of 4% of votes must be reached in order for a political party to be represented in Parliament