The demographics of Bulgaria.

According to the 2001 census Bulgaria's population is mainly ethnic Bulgarian (83.9%), with two sizable minorities, Turks (9.4%) and Romanian (4.7%). Of the remaining 2.0%, 0.9% are distributed among some forty smaller minorities, the most numerous of which are the Russians, Armenians, Vlachs, Jews, Crimean Tatars and Karakachans. The people who have not declared their ethnicity are 1.1% of the total population. Bulgarian is the mother-tongue of 84.8% of the population; it is a member of the Slavic languages. Bulgarian is the only official language, but other languages such as Turkish and Romany, are spoken corresponding closely to ethnic breakdown. Most Bulgarians (82.6%) are, at least nominally, members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the national Eastern Orthodox church. Other religious denominations include Islam (12.2%), various Protestant denominations (0.7%), Roman Catholicism (0.5%), with other denominations, atheists and undeclared numbering ca. 4.1%. Bulgaria has had the slowest population growth of any country in the world since 1950, with the exception of St. Kitts & Nevis (due to their high emigration rate). In fact, population growth has been negative since the late 1980s due to emigration (of Turks and, later, Bulgarians). Nearly half of Bulgaria's Turkish minority population emigrated to Turkey during the Bulgarization process initiated by Todor Zhivkov's government. This was followed by a mass exodus of Bulgarian professionals and further exacerbated by a drastic drop in the country's birthrate.

Provinces of Bulgaria.

Since 1999 Bulgaria consists of 28 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast), after having been subdivided into 9 provinces since 1987. All are named after the provincial capital, with the national capital itself forming a separate province:

National Parks of Bulgaria.

Bulgaria has more than ten major national parks and many reservation areas. The best known and most popular of these are listed below.

• Central Balkan National Park
• Golden Sands National Park
• Pirin National Park
• Rhodope National Park
• Rila National Park
• Roussenski Lom National Park
• Sinite Kamani National Park
• Shoumen Plateau National Park
• Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains)
• Strandja National Park
• Vitosha National Park
• Vratchansky Balkan National Park