Country · Europe
Bulgaria
Republic of Bulgaria
Bulgaria is a country in Southeast Europe. Its capital city is Sofia. About 7 million people live there, in an area of 110 879 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Raggatt2000 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Matti Blume (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Bulgaria?
Bulgaria lies in Southeast Europe, on the continent of Europe.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 4 787 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 354 km long.
It shares a border with 5 countries: Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Türkiye.
How big is Bulgaria?
Bulgaria covers 110 879 square kilometres.
That is about 2.7 times the size of Switzerland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 103rd largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 63.4 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Bulgaria?
About 7 million people live in Bulgaria.
That is the 103rd biggest population in the world.
People here speak Bulgarian.
They pay with the Bulgarian lev (лв).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 71 years.
The land of Bulgaria
The land in Bulgaria sits on average 472 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 354 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 18 days.
It lies between the tropics and the poles, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Bulgaria different?
A dish the country is known for: Banitsa and Bob chorba.
Websites from here often end in .bg.
Bulgaria and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 0.9 live in Bulgaria.
It takes up about 0.08 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Europe it is the 15th largest of 45 countries, and the 20th most populated.
That is close to the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Bulgaria and its neighbours
Türkiye, its largest neighbour, is about 7.1 times bigger.
Türkiye has more people: 82.3 million against 7 million.
Nature and animals
The longest river is the Danube, running 2 850 km from source to mouth.
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Bulgaria?
The capital of Bulgaria is Sofia. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Bulgaria?
About 7 million people live in Bulgaria, which makes it the 103rd most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Bulgaria?
Bulgaria borders Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Türkiye — 5 neighbours in total.
How big is Bulgaria?
Bulgaria covers 110 879 square kilometres, making it the 103rd largest country in the world. That is about 2.7 times the size of Switzerland.
Which continent is Bulgaria in?
Bulgaria is in Europe, in the part called Southeast Europe.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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