ABSTRACT
The Republic of Bulgaria is located in Southeast Europe and borders on five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east. The resident population is 7,202,798, grouped into about 3,000,000 households, on a territory of 110,910 km². It consists of Bulgarians (84%), Turks (9%), Roma (5%), and others (2%). The large majority of the population (84%) professes the Eastern Orthodox faith, while 12% are Muslims. The official language is Bulgarian and the official alphabet is Cyrillic. The present urban inhabitants amount to 70.6% of the Bulgarian population, and the rural ones to 29.4% (National Statistical Institute, 2015b).
