The classification of cities in our country into very large, large, medium, small cities in Bulgaria and very small is based on the number of residents at a permanent address and is the product of a draft amendment to the Law on the Planning of the Territory, which was approved by the Council of Ministers on 26 March 2009. To be classified as “small towns in Bulgaria” towns should have a population between 10,000 and 30,000 people. Cities with a population of less than 10,000 are classified as “very small cities”, those with a population of more than 30,000 but less than 100,000 are classified as “medium-sized cities”. Large cities are cities with a population between 100,000 and 200,000 people, and very large cities with over 200,000 inhabitants. According to data from the last population census in 2021, only 3 cities meet the requirement of a population over 200,000 to fall into the “very large cities” column. These are Plovdiv, Varna and of course Sofia. There are only 3 large cities with a population of over 100,000 but under 200,000 – Stara Zagora, Burgas and Ruse. The most numerous is the group of “very small towns”, and small towns in Bulgaria according to the number of their inhabitants are 45 Bulgarian towns.
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Small towns in Bulgaria
45 of the cities in Bulgaria are classified as small cities in Bulgaria, as the number of inhabitants in each of them according to the last census of 2021 is between 10,000 and 30,000. Small cities in Bulgaria, ranked from least populated to those with whose population is close to 30,000 are: Kavarna, Stamboliyski, Novi Pazar, Cherven Bryag, Radnevo, Balchik, Razlog, Kozloduy, Bankya, Berkovitsa, Provadia, Parvomai, Kostinbrod, Radomir, Ikhtiman, Popovo, Chirpan, Novi Iskar, Pomorie , Nessebar, Rakovski, Peshtera, Panagyurishte, Karnobat, Svilengrad, Gotse Delchev, Troyan, Lom, Botevgrad, Harmanli, Aytos, Sevlievo, Nova Zagora, Karlovo, Velingrad, Svishtov, Sandanski, Samokov, Smolyan, Petrich, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Dupnitsa, Razgrad, Silistra, Lovech, Dimitrovgrad.
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Population in the so-called “small towns in Bulgaria
The general trend is for the population of these cities to decrease if we compare the number of inhabitants counted in 2011 and in 2021. Exceptions are some cities where there is an increase in the population in 2021 compared to 2011. Among the small towns in Bulgaria, Bansko is one such. The tendency to reduce the number of residents in small towns in Bulgaria is not from the last 10 years. Unfortunately, the same trend has been observed in the last few censuses – since 1985, there have been only a few exceptions among small towns in Bulgaria, where there is an increase in the number of inhabitants from one census to the next. Information is provided by the website of the Main Directorate of Civil Administration and Administrative Services.
The total number of cities in our country is 257, which means that 45 cities in one category are by no means few and make the so-called small cities in Bulgaria traditional for our country.
