TOEFL Test Centers in Bulgaria

EDU February 16, 2019

Bulgaria Overview

Bulgaria, republic on the Balkan Peninsula, mostly inhabited by the South Slavic, mostly Orthodox Bulgarians as well as Turks (8%) and Roma (4%). The landscape is characterized by wide plains and high, partly densely forested mountains. With the exception of the Mediterranean Black Sea coast, Bulgaria is part of the Central European vegetation area. Economically important are industry (mechanical engineering, metal processing) and agriculture (especially wine, fruit, tobacco, tomatoes) as well as tourism, especially on the Black Sea coast.

History: In the 7th century the Turkic people of the Proto-Bulgarians immigrated from the Volga and mixed with the Slavs who immigrated around 580 (the majority of the population); In 679 AD the First Bulgarian Empire was founded. In the 11th / 12th In the 19th century, Bulgaria was under Byzantine rule. In 1187 the Second Bulgarian Empire came into being, which rose to become the largest state in Southeast Europe in the 13th century, but disintegrated in the 14th century. Bulgaria came under Turkish rule in 1396 (until 1878).

During the First and Second World Wars, the country sided with Germany and its allies. After the occupation by Soviet troops (1944), Bulgaria, which was constituted as a People’s Republic in 1946, belonged to the Soviet sphere of influence. In the wake of the political upheavals in Eastern Europe in 1989/90, Bulgaria became a democratic republic. In 2004 the country was admitted to NATO. Bulgaria has been a member of the EU since January 1, 2007.

Country facts

• Official name: Republic of Bulgaria
• License plate: BG
• ISO-3166: BG, BGR (100)
• Internet domain:.bg
• Currency: 1 lev (Lw) = 100 Stótinkas (St)
• Area: 111,000 km²
• Population (2018): 7 million
• Capital: Sofia
• Official language (s): Bulgarian
• Form of government: Parliamentary republic
• Administrative division: 28 regions (Oblasti)
• Head of State: President Rumen Radew
• Head of Government: Boyko Borissow
• Religion (s): Christians (59.4% Orthodox); 7.8% Muslim, 29.1% other / n / a, 3.7% non-denominational
• Time zone: Central European Time +1 hour
• National holiday: March 3rd

Location and infrastructure

• Location (geographical): Southeast Europe
• Position (coordinates): between 41 ° 41 ‘and 44 ° 13’ north latitude and 22 ° 22 ‘and 28 ° 37’ east longitude
• Climate: In the north, temperate continental climate, otherwise milder, on the southern Black Sea coast, Mediterranean
• Highest mountain: Musala (2 925 m)
• Road network (2011): 19 235 km (paved), 277 km (unpaved)
• Railway network (2014): 5 114 km

Population

• Annual population growth (2020): -0.7%
• Birth rate (2020): 8.3 per 1000 inh.
• Death rate (2020): 14.6 per 1000 residents.
• Average age (2020): 43.7 years
• Average life expectancy (2020): 75 years (men 71.8; women 78.5)
• Age structure (2020): 14.5% younger than 15 years, 20.1% older than 65 years
• Literacy rate (15-year-olds and older) (2015): 98.4%
• Mobile phone contracts (pre-paid and post-paid) (2017): 120 per 100 residents
• Internet users (2017): 63 per 100 residents

Economy

• GDP per capita (2018): US $ 9,267
• Total GDP (2018): US $ 65 billion
• GNI per capita (2018): US $ 8,860
• Education expenditure (2013): 4.1% of GDP
• Military expenditure (2019): 3.3% of GDP
• Unemployment rate (15 years and older) (2017): 6.3%

Geography

Bulgaria borders the Black Sea in the east, the European part of Turkey in the south-east, Greece in the south, the Republic of North Macedonia in the south-west, Serbia in the west and north-west, and Romania in the north.

Bulgaria is located in the east of the Balkan Peninsula and extends up to 520 km from east to west and up to 320 km from north to south. The country consists of about 30% plains, 40% hill country and 30% high and low mountain ranges. Bulgaria is divided (from north to south) into the Danube valley, into the v. a. Danube plains made up of limestone, partly covered with loess (Bulgarian plate; 100–400 m above sea level), in the chain of hills of the foothills of the Balkans (on average 370 m above sea level), in the Balkan mountains, the middle part of which has the highest peaks (Botew 2 376 m above the sea level); to the south of this mountain range, which traverses the country from west to east, tectonic basin landscapes (basins of Sofia, Karlovo and Kazanlak) follow Vitoscha (up to 2 290 m above sea level) and the Sredna gora (the Antibalkan), a low mountain range that lowers to the Maritza plain (up to 1 604 m above sea level).

The Maritza Plain is the largest contiguous lowland in Bulgaria, to which the Istranca Dağları (Bulgarian Strandscha) adjoin in the east (the main part of this mountain range is in Turkey). South of the Maritza rise the mountains of the Thracian mass with a steep north face, which occupy the southernmost and southwestern area of ​​Bulgaria. These include the extensive Rhodope Mountains (up to 2,191 m above sea level), the Pirin Mountains between the rivers Mesta and Struma (up to 2,915 m above sea level) and the Rila Mountains with the Musala, the highest mountain in Bulgaria (2 925 m above sea level); the Ossogowska Planina rises on the border with Serbia (up to 2 251 m above sea level).