[6][7] The peak was in 1989, the year when the borders opened after a half of a century of communist regime, when the population numbered 9,009,018.

Note: Crude migration change (per 1000) is an extrapolation [8] The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman.

[9] [10][11][12] Source: National Statistical Institute[13][14] [27] The first reliable data about fertility and natural increase rates in the Bulgarian lands date back to the mid-1800s.

According to Turkish statistician Kemal Karpat, Non-Muslims, Bulgarians included, in the Ottoman Empire received a remarkable boost in fertility in the early 1830s.

Their average growth rate climbed up to 2% per year, compared to zero among Muslims, who suffered from demographic stagnation.

Muslim birth and natural increase rates started climbing slowly from the late 1890s but only surpassed Orthodox ones in 1924.

Provinces with large Roma populations (for example Sliven, Montana and Yambol) tend to have higher fertility rates (and higher death rates) compared to other areas, whereas Turkish fertility is similar to the Bulgarian majority.

On the other hand, the municipalities of Georgi Damyanovo, Banite and Nevestino have incredibly low birth rates.

The ten municipalities with the largest absolute number of teenage mothers for 2022 are: Sliven (371), Sofia (345), Plovdiv (196), Pazardzhik (130), Yambol (123), Nova Zagora (121), Burgas (108), Pleven (110), Tvarditsa (98), Stara Zagora, Varna (83) and Haskovo (81).

Kardzhali Province and Sofia City have the highest life expectancy with 76.6 years for both sexes.

[44] The following forecast for the future population is an official estimate of the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria.

The progressive decrease of the Bulgarian population is hindering economic growth and welfare improvement, and the management measures taken to mitigate the negative consequences do not address the essence of the problem.

The program also identifies the priority means for achieving this goal: measures to increase the birth rate, reduce youth emigration, and build up regulatory and institutional capacity to implement a modern immigration policy tailored to the needs of the Bulgarian business.

[48][49] 2 In the 1946 and the 1956 census, the population of Pirin Macedonia was forced to list as ethnic Macedonians by the Communist government in preparation of a planned federation between the People's Republic of Bulgaria and Socialist Yugoslavia, with "United Macedonia" as the connecting piece.

The 2001 census defines an ethnic group as a "community of people, related to each other by origin and language, and close to each other by mode of life and culture"; and one's mother tongue as "the language a person speaks best and usually uses for communication in the family (household)".

[72][73][74] The census of the Principality also counted a total of 37,635 people, or 1.88% of the population, born in a country other than the Ottoman Empire, mostly Bulgarians from Romania, Northern Dobruja and Bessarabia.

[72] By 1887, when the first joint census of the Principality and the autonomous province was conducted following their peaceful unification in 1885, the number of the refugees from the Ottoman Empire had grown to 54,462 people, or 1.73% of the population, while the rest of the foreign-born population had fallen to 31,637 people, 9,831 of whom born in the Russian Empire, 11,843 in Romania, 2,690 in Serbia and 7,273 elsewhere.

The same data shows that the foreign-born ethnic Bulgarians numbered 78,000, or 2% of them, most numerous of whom were the 61,000 Ottoman-born, 9,000 Romanian-born and by less than 2,000 Austro-Hungarian, Serbian and Russian-born.

[76] By the 1926 census, there had been 253,000 refugees with granted households and land or citizenship but with many more in towns of uncertain number.

113,647 were granted on grounds of proven Bulgarian ancestry, including 59,968 North Macedonia citizens.

According to Eurostat, 82.3% per cent of the population live in privately owned and owner-occupied homes, ranking it as 12th highest in ownership globally.