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Provinces of Bulgaria Oбласти на България
Category	Unitary state
Location	Republic of Bulgaria
Number	28 (as of 1999)
Populations	101,018 (Vidin) – 1,291,591 (Sofia City)
Areas	1,348.90 km (520.81 sq mi) (Sofia City)– 7,748.07 km (2,991.55 sq mi) (Burgas)
Government	Province government, National government
Subdivisions	Municipality

Politics of Bulgaria
Constitution 1879 1947 1971 1991
Presidency President (list) Rumen Radev Vice President Iliana Iotova
Executive Legislative Government Prime Minister (list) Dimitar Glavchev (caretaker) National Assembly Speaker: Nataliya Kiselova
Law Judiciary Nationality law Human rights Courts Constitutional Court Supreme Administrative Court Supreme Court of Cassation Office of the General Prosecutor
Major political parties PP GERB DPS Bulgarian Socialist Party Democratic Bulgaria Revival Bulgarian Rise
Recent elections Presidential: 2016 2021 2026 Parliamentary: 2023 2024 (Jun) 2024 (Oct) European: 2014 2019 2024
Administrative divisions Provinces (oblasti) Municipalities (obshtini)
Foreign relations 2007 EU enlargement Kristalina Georgieva Politics of the European Union
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v t e

The provinces of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: области на България, romanized: oblasti na Bǎlgariya) are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the country.

Since 1999, Bulgaria has been divided into 28 provinces (Bulgarian: области – oblasti; singular: област – oblast; also translated as "regions") which correspond approximately to the 28 districts (in Bulgarian: окръг – okrǎg, plural: окръзи – okrǎzi), that existed before 1987.

The provinces are further subdivided into 265 municipalities (singular: община – obshtina, plural: общини – obshtini).

Sofia – the capital city of Bulgaria and the largest settlement in the country – is the administrative centre of both Sofia Province and Sofia City Province (Sofia-grad). The capital is included (together with three other cities plus 34 villages) in Sofia Capital Municipality (over 90% of whose population lives in Sofia), which is the sole municipality comprising Sofia City province.

Terminology

The provinces do not have official names – legally (in the President's decree on their constitution), they are not named but only described as "oblast with administrative centre " – together with a list of the constituting municipalities. In Bulgaria they are usually called " Oblast"; occasionally they are referred to as "Oblast " and rarely as "oblast with administrative centre ".

The Bulgarian term "област" (oblast) is preferably translated into English as "province", in order to avoid disambiguation and distinguish from the former unit called "окръг" (okrag, translated as "district") and the term "регион" (always translated as "region"). At any rate, "district" and "region" are sometimes still used to name these contemporary 28 units.

• "region": "28 regions (en) / région (fr) / oblast (bg)" – in ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-3 (2011-12-13, corrected 2011-12-15)
• "district": "The territory of the South Central Region encompasses five districts – Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Smolyan, Haskovo, and Kyrdzhali." – in a website of the European Commission.

Provinces

Province	Population (Census 2011)	Population (Census 2021)	Change (2011/2021)	Land area (km)	Population density (/km)	Municipalities	Planning Region
Blagoevgrad	323,552	292,227	-9.7%	6,449.47	45.31	14	South Western
Burgas	415,817	380,286	-8.5%	7,748.07	49.08	13	South Eastern
Dobrich	189,677	150,146	-20.8%	4,719.71	31.81	8	North Eastern
Gabrovo	122,702	98,387	-19.8%	2,023.01	48.63	4	North Central
Haskovo	246,238	211,565	-14.1%	5,533.29	38.23	11	South Central
Kardzhali	152,808	141,177	-7.6%	3,209.11	43.99	7	South Central
Kyustendil	136,686	111,736	-18.3%	3,051.52	36.61	9	South Western
Lovech	141,422	116,394	-17.7%	4,128.76	28.19	8	North Western
Montana	148,098	119,950	-19.0%	3,635.38	32.99	11	North Western
Pazardzhik	275,548	229,814	-16.6%	4,456.92	51.56	12	South Central
Pernik	133,530	114,162	-14.5%	2,394.22	47.68	6	South Western
Pleven	269,752	226,120	-16.2%	4,653.32	48.59	11	North Western
Plovdiv	683,027	634,497	-7.1%	5,972.89	106.22	18	South Central
Razgrad	125,190	103,223	-17.5%	2,639.74	39.10	7	North Central
Ruse	235,252	193,483	-17.8%	2,803.36	69.01	8	North Central
Shumen	180,528	151,465	-16.1%	3,389.68	44.68	10	North Eastern
Silistra	119,474	97,770	-18.2%	2,846.29	34.34	7	North Central
Sliven	197,473	172,690	-12.6%	3,544.07	48.72	4	South Eastern
Smolyan	121,752	96,284	-20.9%	3,192.85	30.15	10	South Central
Sofia City	1,291,591	1,274,290	-1.3%	1,348.90	944.68	1	South Western
Sofia Province	247,489	231,989	-6.3%	7,062.33	32.84	22	South Western
Stara Zagora	333,265	296,507	-11.0%	5,151.12	57.56	11	South Eastern
Targovishte	120,818	98,144	-18.8%	2,558.53	38.35	5	North Eastern
Varna	475,074	432,198	-9.0%	3,819.47	113.15	12	North Eastern
Veliko Tarnovo	258,494	207,371	-19.8%	4,661.57	44.48	10	North Central
Vidin	101,018	75,408	-25.4%	3,032.88	24.86	11	North Western
Vratsa	186,848	152,813	-18.2%	3,619.77	42.21	10	North Western
Yambol	131,447	109,693	-16.5%	3,355.48	32.69	5	South Eastern
Bulgaria	7,364,570	6,519,789	-11.5%	111,001.71	58.73	265

History

In 1987, the then-existing 28 districts (okrags) were transformed into 9 large units (in Bulgarian called oblasts – provinces), which survived until 1999.

The 9 large provinces are listed below, along with the pre-1987 districts (post-1999 small provinces) comprising them.

On 1 January 1999, the old districts were restored with some modifications, but the designation "oblast" ("province") was kept.

See also

• Administrative divisions below the province level:
  • List of cities and towns in Bulgaria
  • List of villages in Bulgaria
  • Municipalities of Bulgaria
• Constituencies of Bulgaria, which are based on the provinces
• ISO 3166-2:BG
• List of Bulgarian provinces by GDP
• Liste des gouverneurs des provinces bulgares (in French)

References

1. "South Central Planning Region". European Commission. Archived from the original on 2014-10-13. Retrieved 2014-10-07.
2. ^ "Bulgaria: Major Cities". citypopulation.de.
3. "Bulgaria – Government Structure". countrystudies.us. Retrieved 15 October 2017.

v t e Provinces of Bulgaria
	Blagoevgrad Burgas Dobrich Gabrovo Haskovo Kardzhali Kyustendil Lovech Montana Pazardzhik Pernik Pleven Plovdiv Razgrad Ruse Shumen Silistra Sliven Smolyan Sofia City Province Sofia Province Stara Zagora Targovishte Varna Veliko Tarnovo Vidin Vratsa Yambol
Etymological list of provinces of Bulgaria

• Provinces of Bulgaria
• Lists of administrative divisions
• Administrative divisions in Europe
• First-level administrative divisions by country
• Lists of populated places in Bulgaria