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Updates: 

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9 was published on 2007-11-28. For Bulgaria, the changes are all to the spellings of region names. Bulgaria has adopted a new official Romanization scheme. Most of the new names are the same as in the main table below. A few of them are listed as variants under "Other names of subdivisions".

I found several new sources of data which I incorporated into the tables below. The GeoHive Bulgaria page  had 1992-12-04 census data by province, which I used to calculate the populations of the nine regions at that time. Many different figures for area have been published; the most plausible I found were in an appendix to a document  titled "European Integration, Regional Specialization and Location of Industrial Activity in Bulgaria", by Julia Spiridonova. The 2001 census data come from the website of the National Statistical Institute . I found several sources for NUTS codes.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It replaces the nine old regions with the 28 new ones. The new codes are shown in the table below.

Change Notice 5 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2000-08-10. It shows Bulgaria divided into 28 regions. A Web page says this change took place on 1999-01-08. The new regions seem to be the same as the Bulgarian provinces prior to 1987, except for some name changes. The name of Mikhaylovgrad and its capital were changed to Montana in ~1991. The name of Tolbukhin and its capital have been changed to Dobrich, which was the city's name before 1949 (it was also called Bazargic under Romanian rule).

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on 1998-12-15. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Bulgaria, the draft standard showed nine regions. Each one was assigned a single-digit code. The final standard shows the same nine regions. Each one has a two-digit code, which is the former code with a zero prefixed. For example, the code for Burgas changed from "2" to "02".

Country overview: 

Short name	BULGARIA
ISO code	BG
FIPS code	BU
Language	Bulgarian (bg)
Time zone	+2 ~
Capital	Sofiya

 

Bulgaria began the 20th century as a tributary principality of the Ottoman Empire. It consisted of Bulgaria proper and Eastern Rumelia. On 1908-10-05 it became an independent kingdom. In 1913, as a result of the First Balkan War, Bulgaria acquired territory from the Ottoman Empire in what is now southern Bulgaria, Greek Thrace, and a small part of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In the northeast, however, it ceded territory around Bazargic (Dobitsch) to Romania. In 1915, it acquired another small slice of the Ottoman Empire around Orestias and Dimotika, now in Greece. In the Peace of Sèvres (1920), Bulgaria lost part of Thrace to Greece. The Peace of Lausanne (1923) gave more of Thrace to Greece, resulting in the present-day border between Bulgaria and Greece. The Treaty of Craiova (1940-09-08) transferred Durostor (Silistra) and Caliacra (Tolbukhin) provinces (together known as Southern Dobruja) from Romania to Bulgaria. After World War II, the peace treaty restored Bulgaria to its borders of 1941-01-01, canceling out its conquests in Thrace and southern Yugoslavia. In a referendum, voters chose to end the monarchy and form a republic. The first general election went to the Communists. Bulgaria remained in the Communist bloc until the Iron Curtain fell in 1991.

Other names of country: 

1. Bulgarian: Republika Bulgaria (formal)
2. Danish: Bulgarien
3. Dutch: Bulgarije, Republiek Bulgarije (formal)
4. English: Republic of Bulgaria (formal)
5. Finnish: Bulgaria
6. French: Bulgarie f
7. German: Bulgarien n
8. Icelandic: Búlgaría
9. Italian: Bulgaria f
10. Norwegian: Bulgaria, Republikken Bulgaria (formal)
11. Portuguese: Bulgária, República f da Bulgária f (formal)
12. Spanish: Bulgaria, República f de Bulgaria f (formal)
13. Swedish: Bulgarien
14. Turkish: Bulgaristan, Bulgaristan Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Land of the Bulgars. Bulgar comes from the Turkish word for mixed, since the Bulgars had mixed origins.

Primary subdivisions: 

Bulgaria is divided into 28 oblasti (regions).

Province	HASC	ISO	NUTS	FIPS	Post	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Reg
Blagoevgrad	BG.BL	01	BG213	BU38	2700	341,245	6,450	2,490	8
Burgas	BG.BR	02	BG231	BU39	8000	423,608	7,748	2,992	2
Dobrich	BG.DO	08	BG132	BU40	9300	215,232	4,720	1,822	3
Gabrovo	BG.GB	07	BG124	BU41	5300	144,150	2,023	781	4
Grad Sofiya	BG.SG	22	BG211	BU42	1000	1,173,988	1,349	521	1
Khaskovo	BG.KK	26	BG223	BU43	6300	277,483	5,533	2,136	9
Kurdzhali	BG.KZ	09	BG226	BU44	6600	164,019	3,209	1,239	9
Kyustendil	BG.KY	10	BG215	BU45	2500	162,622	3,052	1,178	8
Lovech	BG.LV	11	BG122	BU46	5500	169,951	4,129	1,594	4
Montana	BG.MT	12	BG112	BU47	3400	182,267	3,636	1,404	5
Pazardzhik	BG.PZ	13	BG224	BU48	4400	310,741	4,457	1,721	6
Pernik	BG.PN	14	BG214	BU49	2300	149,856	2,394	924	8
Pleven	BG.PV	15	BG121	BU50	5800	312,018	4,336	1,674	4
Plovdiv	BG.PD	16	BG221	BU51	4000	715,904	5,973	2,306	6
Razgrad	BG.RG	17	BG135	BU52	7200	152,417	2,640	1,019	7
Ruse	BG.RS	18	BG125	BU53	7000	266,213	2,803	1,082	7
Shumen	BG.SH	27	BG133	BU54	9700	204,395	3,390	1,309	3
Silistra	BG.SI	19	BG136	BU55	7500	142,003	2,846	1,099	7
Sliven	BG.SL	20	BG232	BU56	8800	218,474	3,544	1,368	2
Smolyan	BG.SM	21	BG225	BU57	4700	140,067	3,193	1,233	6
Sofiya	BG.SF	23	BG212	BU58	2000	273,252	7,062	2,727	8
Stara Zagora	BG.SZ	24	BG222	BU59	6000	370,665	5,151	1,989	9
Turgovishte	BG.TU	25	BG134	BU60	7700	137,689	2,559	988	7
Varna	BG.VN	03	BG131	BU61	9000	462,218	3,820	1,475	3
Veliko Turnovo	BG.VT	04	BG123	BU62	5000	293,294	4,662	1,800	4
Vidin	BG.VD	05	BG111	BU63	3700	130,094	3,033	1,171	5
Vratsa	BG.VR	06	BG113	BU64	3000	243,039	3,938	1,520	5
Yambol	BG.YA	28	BG233	BU65	8600	156,080	3,356	1,296	2
28 provinces						7,932,984	111,002	42,858
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Region codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "BG-" to the code (ex: BG-05 represents Vidin). NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Post: Start of postal code range for province. Population: 2001-03-01 census. Reg: ISO code of former region containing this province (see Change history, 1993) Capitals: have the same names as the provinces, except that Sofiya is the capital of Grad Sofiya.

Postal codes: 

Bulgaria uses four-digit postal codes. Postal codes for Bulgarian addresses can be identified by prefixing them with BG-.

Further subdivisions:

As of 2000, there are also six rayons (planning regions), which are groupings of provinces. These are the planning regions of Bulgaria:

Region	NUTS	Chief town
North Central	BG12	Ruse
North East	BG13	Varna
North West	BG11	Vidin
South East	BG22	Burgas
South Central	BG23	Plovdiv
South West	BG21	Sofija

 

The NUTS codes define a hierarchical set of subdivisions of Bulgaria. At level 1, BG1 is called "North Bulgaria" and BG2 is called "South Bulgaria". The level-2 subdivisions are the planning regions, and the level-3 subdivisions are the provinces. The municipalities are the level-4 NUTS areas, and at level 5 there are "settlements". For any subdivision that has a NUTS code, when the last digit of the code is truncated, the result is the NUTS code for the higher-level division that contains it. There was an earlier set of NUTS codes for Bulgaria, all beginning with BG0, but they were apparently dropped when the planning regions were instituted.

In 1959, there were thirteen okruzhi (provinces; sing. okrug), divided into 105 okolii (counties; sing. okolia), which were further divided into 2,142 obshchini (municipalities; sing. obshchina). A reform that year eliminated the counties, cut the provinces into 28 smaller provinces, and cut the number of municipalities roughly in half. A reform of 1979 cut the number of municipalities from 1,374 to 291. There were 300 municipalities by 1986. In 1987, the provinces were merged to form nine oblasti (regions; sing. oblast). In 1992, these were subdivided into a total of 279 municipalities. As of 2005, the secondary administrative divisions of Bulgaria are 264 municipalities.

Origins of names: 

1. Blagoevgrad: Bulgarian: city of Blagoev, for Dimitar Blagoev, Bulgarian politician and writer
2. Burgas: possibly from Ancient Greek pyrgos: walled city
3. Dimitrovgrad: Bulgarian: city of Dimitrov, for Gyorgy Mikhailovich Dimitrov, Bulgarian politician
4. Khaskovo: possibly from Turkish has: dwelling place
5. Plovdiv: the city was named Philippopolis by Philip II of Macedonia. The inhabitants corrupted Philip into Pulpu, and replaced -opolis (city) with their own name for city, diva.
6. Sofiya: Named by Turks for the church of Saint Sophia, which they changed to a mosque

Change history: 

1. 1909: Before the first Balkan war, the districts of Bulgaria were Bourgas, Choumen, Kustendil, Pléven, Plovdiv, Ruse, Sophia, Stara Zagora, Turnovo, Varna, Vidin, and Vratsa.
2. 1945: Bulgaria had nine regions at the end of World War II, as listed in this table.

Region	Population
Burgas	629,593
Gorna Dzhumaya	252,258
Pleven	527,708
Plovdiv	1,056,436
Ruse	876,993
Sofiya	1,205,484
Stara Zagora	821,764
Varna	880,484
Vratsa	771,486
9 regions	7,022,206
Population: 1946-12-31 census

1. 1949-09-22: Nine regions replaced by 15 provinces: Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Haskovo, Pleven, Plovdiv, Ruse, Shumen, Sofiya, Sofiya City, Stalin, Stara Zagora, Vidin, Vratsa, and Yambol.
2. 1950: Shumen province and its capital renamed to Kolarovgrad.
3. 1950: Capital of Blagoevgrad province renamed from Gorna Dzhumaya to Blagoevgrad.
4. 1951-01-02: Vidin province merged into Vratsa, and Yambol merged into Burgas.
5. ~1953: Capital of Gorna Oryahovitsa moved to Veliko Turnovo, and province renamed accordingly.
6. 1956: Stalin province and its capital renamed to Varna.
7. 1959: The thirteen provinces were regrouped into 28 provinces.
8. 1965: Kolarovgrad province and its capital renamed back to Shumen. At this time, the provinces were:

Province	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Region
Blagoevgrad	BU01	303,000	6,478	Sofiya
Burgas	BU02	381,000	7,618	Burgas
Gabrovo	BU03	169,000	2,053	Lovech
Grad Sofiya	BU20	895,000	1,119	Grad Sofiya
Khaskovo	BU04	290,000	4,033	Khaskovo
Kurdzhali	BU05	284,000	4,032	Khaskovo
Kyustendil	BU06	197,000	3,027	Sofiya
Lovech	BU07	217,000	4,134	Lovech
Mikhaylovgrad	BU08	241,000	3,595	Mikhaylovgrad
Pazardzhik	BU09	297,000	4,393	Plovdiv
Pernik	BU10	181,000	2,377	Sofiya
Pleven	BU11	352,000	4,216	Lovech
Plovdiv	BU12	645,000	5,588	Plovdiv
Razgrad	BU13	198,000	2,648	Razgrad
Ruse	BU14	273,000	2,616	Razgrad
Shumen	BU15	243,000	3,365	Varna
Silistra	BU16	171,000	2,862	Razgrad
Sliven	BU17	227,000	3,646	Burgas
Smolyan	BU18	160,000	3,532	Plovdiv
Sofiya	BU19	318,000	7,277	Sofiya
Stara Zagora	BU21	352,000	4,959	Khaskovo
Tolbukhin	BU22	236,000	4,700	Varna
Turgovishte	BU23	178,000	2,735	Razgrad
Varna	BU24	367,000	3,847	Varna
Veliko Turnovo	BU25	339,000	4,684	Lovech
Vidin	BU26	181,000	3,071	Mikhaylovgrad
Vratsa	BU27	309,000	4,098	Mikhaylovgrad
Yambol	BU28	223,000	4,209	Burgas
28 provinces		8,227,000	110,912
FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1965-12-01 census. Region: Region containing the province after 1987. Capitals: have the same names as the provinces, except that Sofiya is the capital of Grad Sofiya.

1. 1987-08: Nine regions formed by consolidating the 28 provinces. Topolovgrad municipality transferred from Yambol province to Khaskovo region.
2. ~1991: Name of Mikhaylovgrad region changed to Montana.
3. ~1993: Name of Razgrad region changed to Ruse. Since Bulgarian regions have the same names as their capitals, this probably means that the capital of the region moved from Razgrad to Ruse. Both the ISO and FIPS standards use the spelling Ruse, but Rousse is also a common transliteration of the region's name. This is how the regions stood at that time:

Region	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)
Burgas	BG.BU	2	BU29	851,709	14,657
Grad Sofiya	BG.GS	1	BU30	1,190,126	1,311
Khaskovo	BG.HA	9	BU31	906,648	13,892
Lovech	BG.LO	4	BU32	1,017,114	15,150
Montana	BG.MO	5	BU33	630,513	10,607
Plovdiv	BG.PL	6	BU34	1,220,370	13,628
Ruse	BG.RA	7	BU35	768,514	10,842
Sofiya	BG.SO	8	BU36	986,253	18,979
Varna	BG.VA	3	BU37	916,070	11,929
9 regions				8,487,317	110,995
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1992-12-04 census. Capitals: have the same name as their divisions, except that the capital of Grad Sofiya is Sofiya.

1. 1999-01-08: Bulgaria reorganized from nine regions into 28. The new regions seem to be the same as the provinces prior to 1987, except for some name changes: Mikhaylovgrad to Montana, and Tolbukhin to Dobrich.
2. 2001-07-03: Knezha municipality transferred from Vratsa region to Pleven.
3. 2001-07-17, 2003-04-11, 2003-09-17, 2004-02-25: Several small transfers of territory between Razgrad and Ruse regions took place, all sub-municipality units, mostly to the advantage of Ruse.

Other names of subdivisions: 

The Bulgarian language uses a Cyrillic alphabet, so all these names are transliterated into the Roman alphabet. Some of the variant names are due to different transliteration schemes. Also note that oblasti and okruzhi come and go, but cities stay. Variant names are shown for capitals, which have the same name as their division whenever the division exists.

1. Blagoevgrad: Gorna Djumaya, Gorna Dzhumaya (obsolete)
2. Burgas: Bourgas (variant)
3. Grad Sofiya: Sofia City (English); Sofia-Grad (variant)
4. Khaskovo: Haskovo (variant)
5. Kurdzhali: Kârdžali, Kardzhali, Kirjali, Kurdjali (variant)
6. Kyustendil: Keustendil, Kjustendil (variant)
7. Lovech: Loveč (variant)
8. Montana: Mikhaylovgrad, Mihailovgrad (obsolete)
9. Pazardzhik: Pazardjik (variant); Tatar Pazardžik (obsolete)
10. Pleven: Plevila, Plevna (obsolete); Plyeven (variant)
11. Plovdiv: Philippopolis (obsolete)
12. Shumen: Kolarovgrad, Šumla (obsolete); Šumen (variant)
13. Sliven: Slivno (obsolete)
14. Smolyan: Smoljan (variant)
15. Sofiya: Sofia, Sofija (variant); Sofya (Turkish)
16. Ruse: Rousse (variant); Russe, Ruščuk, Rustchuk (obsolete)
17. Tolbukhin: Bazargic, Bazardzhik, Dobritch, Dobrici, Hagi Oglu (obsolete); Tolbuhin (variant)
18. Turgovishte: Tâgovište, Targovishte, Torgovishte (variant)
19. Veliko Turnovo: Gorna Oryahovitsa, Gorna Orjahovica (obsolete); Turnovo, Tirnovo, Trnova, Veliko Tarnovo (variant)
20. Varna: Stalin (obsolete)
21. Vratsa: Vraca (variant)
22. Yambol: Jambol (variant); Jamboli (obsolete)

Population history:

Province	1965-12-01	1975-12-02	1985-12-04	1992-12-04	2001-03-01
Blagoevgrad	303,000	324,000	346,000	351,637	341,245
Burgas	381,000	421,000	446,000	440,372	423,608
Dobrich	236,000	250,000	256,000	232,780	215,232
Gabrovo	169,000	176,000	178,000	161,987	144,150
Grad Sofiya	895,000	1,066,000	1,193,000	1,190,126	1,173,988
Khaskovo	290,000	293,000	300,000	295,503	277,483
Kurdzhali	284,000	288,000	298,000	213,806	164,019
Kyustendil	197,000	199,000	193,000	181,347	162,622
Lovech	217,000	217,000	204,000	190,262	169,951
Montana	241,000	236,000	226,000	208,198	182,267
Pazardzhik	297,000	314,000	326,000	326,123	310,741
Pernik	181,000	175,000	176,000	163,307	149,856
Pleven	352,000	359,000	367,000	346,614	312,018
Plovdiv	645,000	721,000	758,000	734,495	715,904
Razgrad	198,000	204,000	197,000	167,410	152,417
Ruse	273,000	294,000	303,000	288,702	266,213
Shumen	243,000	254,000	256,000	220,320	204,395
Silistra	171,000	177,000	174,000	161,063	142,003
Sliven	227,000	238,000	239,000	234,785	218,474
Smolyan	160,000	163,000	171,000	159,752	140,067
Sofiya	318,000	322,000	304,000	289,962	273,252
Stara Zagora	352,000	390,000	415,000	397,339	370,665
Turgovishte	178,000	179,000	172,000	151,339	137,689
Varna	367,000	430,000	466,000	462,970	462,218
Veliko Turnovo	339,000	350,000	338,000	318,251	293,294
Vidin	181,000	179,000	165,000	151,636	130,094
Vratsa	309,000	312,000	288,000	270,679	243,039
Yambol	223,000	207,000	204,000	176,552	156,080
Totals	8,227,000	8,738,000	8,959,000	8,487,317	7,932,984