Home » News » Surprise with the Roma: they are decreasing faster than all ethnic groups in our country in the last 10 years (Overview)

Surprise with the Roma: they are decreasing faster than all ethnic groups in our country in the last 10 years (Overview)

Those who identified themselves as Bulgarians number 5,118,494

The Turkish population is mainly concentrated in five areas

Contrary to the generally accepted belief about the high birth rate among Roma, they are declining faster than other ethnic groups in Bulgaria. This is demonstrated by the data from the last census of September this year, which the NSI announced on Thursday.

The population of our country decreased by 16.5% between 2011 and 2021 to 6,519,789 people. The number of people who identified with the Bulgarian ethnic group decreased by 9.6% to 5,118,494 people. In the case of the Turks, the decrease was 13.6% and they are 508,378. The number of Roma decreased the most – by 18% in 10 years to 266,720 people.

So at the moment

84.6% of people in our country are of Bulgarian origin, 8.4% are of Turkish origin and 4.4% are of Roma origin.

“This is the ethnicity according to the self-determination of the person during the census, as required by the guidelines of the United Nations,” explained Diana Yancheva, vice president of the NSI. During the census, people had the opportunity to tick a total of five columns: Bulgarian, Turkish, Roma, other or “I don’t want to answer”. There was also the “other” column, where the enumerated could write what their ethnicity was.

This allowed Zevzeci to write all sorts of things in the “other” column, including defining themselves as Martians — such a case exists, Yancheva said. However, out of the three main ethnic groups, Pomaks, Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, etc. are more significant. (Look down)

If we follow the 1900 census data, it can be seen that the distribution between Bulgarians, Turks and Roma has not changed significantly in 120 years (Check out the infographic) Then the Turkish population was 14.2%, but subsequently it decreased in percentage.

The situation with the Roma population is slightly different. At first count, it turns out to be 2.4%. But it melted to 0.2%, census data showed in 1975. It later rose to 3.7% in 1992 and 4.7% in 2001, but has been steadily declining ever since. However, the Roma population

rarely live past 65,

the latest data show – only 7.3%. For Turks, this is almost 20%, and for Bulgarians – 23.5%. Therefore, the Roma population is the youngest – 26.6% are under 14 years old. Turks have almost twice as many children – 13.8%, and Bulgarians have even less – 12%.

There are currently 1,768 Roma university graduates in Bulgaria. In the previous census they were about double, although both then and now the share of university graduates among this population is less than 1%. 11.8% of Roma are illiterate. 41.7% have a primary education, 23.2% have a primary education and 19.9% ​​have no education. The average is 14.4%.

The total illiterates among the Turkish population are 3.4% and among the Bulgarian population 0.5%. In principle, the question “Are you literate” is asked only to people aged 9 and older.

Ethnic Bulgarians live all over the country, the situation is almost the same with Roma, but they are more compact in Sliven, Montana, Vidin and Pazardzhik.

However, the Turkish population is mainly concentrated in five districts: Kardzhali, Razgrad, Targovishte, Silistra and Shumen and less so in Burgas, Dobrich and Ruse.

The proportion of people living in villages is the highest among Turks,

while 51% of Roma live in cities and 72% of Bulgarians.

Employment and unemployment depend heavily on ethnicity, data show. For example, 51.2% of Roma of working age report not working. For the Turkish ethnic group, this percentage is 20.9 and for the Bulgarian only 8.4%.

Mother tongue is the other category monitored during the census and the characteristics largely correspond to those of ethnicity.

But there are still differences. For example, for some of the people with Turkish ethnic self-awareness, the mother tongue is actually Bulgarian – about 5%.

For 84% of Roma, the mother tongue is Roma. About 6% of them are Turkish and 10% are Bulgarian. Interestingly, the youngest – those up to the age of 14, most often cannot determine either what their native language is, or what their ethnicity is.

Believers in Bulgaria are dwindling,

show the data. In the 2011 census, 60.4% of people answered “yes” when asked if they were believers, while in the last census those who answered positively dropped to 51.4%. Among people of Bulgarian ethnicity there are 2.2% Muslims. 79.9% declare themselves Eastern Orthodox, but there are also Catholics, Protestants, Armenian Apostolic faith, “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and many others.

1.1% of the Turkish ethnic group in our country is made up of Christians, mostly Eastern Orthodox and less Protestant. The others are almost entirely Muslim, but unlike the previous census, this time it was not specified whether they were Sunni or Shia.

It is more colorful among the Roma – 19.1% define themselves as Eastern Orthodox, but there are also quite a lot of Protestants – 12.4%, 17.6% are Muslims, there are also Catholics and those who profess other Christian faiths.

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