Smolyan Province

Smolyan Province (Bulgarian: Област Смолян, Oblast Smolyan; former name Smolyan okrug) is a province in Southern-central Bulgaria, located in the Rhodope Mountains, neighbouring Greece to the south. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre—the city of Smolyan. The province embraces a territory of 3,192.8 km2 (1,232.7 sq mi).[1] that is divided into 10 municipalities with a total population of 124,795 inhabitants, as of December 2009.[2][3][4]

Smolyan Province

Област Смолян
Province
Location of Smolyan Province in Bulgaria
CountryBulgaria
CapitalSmolyan
Municipalities10
Government
 • GovernorNedyalko Slavov
Area
 • Total3,192.8 km2 (1,232.7 sq mi)
Population
 (February 2011)[2]
 • Total121,572
 • Density38/km2 (99/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)
License plateCM
Websiteregion-smolyan.org

Municipalities
Municipalities of Smolyan province

Smolyan Province (Област, Oblast) contains 10 municipalities[5] (singular: община, obshtina; plural: Общини, obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village (towns are shown in bold), and the population of each as of December 2009.

Municipality Cyrillic Pop.[2][3][4] Town/Village Pop.[6][3][7][8][9]
Banite Баните 4,972 Banite 1,047
Borino Борино 3,618 Borino 2,516
Chepelare Чепеларе 8,045 Chepelare 5,412
Devin Девин 13,204 Devin 7,054
Dospat Доспат 9,526 Dospat 2,604
Madan Мадан 12,606 Madan 6,007
Nedelino Неделино 7,577 Nedelino 4,641
Rudozem Рудозем 9,801 Rudozem 3,583
Smolyan Смолян 43,186 Smolyan 31,718
Zlatograd Златоград 12,260 Zlatograd 7,110

Population
The Miraculous bridges

The Smolyan province had a population of 140,066[10][11] according to the 2001 census, of which 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female.[12] As of the end of 2009, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 124,795[2] of which 23.4% are inhabitants aged over 60 years.[13]

The following table represents the change of the population in the province after World War II:

Smolyan Province
Year 1946 1956 1965 1975 1985 1992 2001 2005 2007 2009 2011
Population 111,193 145,072 160,255 156,157 158,011 154,553 140,066 131,010 128,200 124,795 121,572
Sources: National Statistical Institute,[2] „Census 2001“,[3] „Census 2011“,[4] „pop-stat.mashke.org“,??

Ethnic groups
Ethnic groups in Smolyan Province (2011 census)
Ethnic group Percentage
Bulgarians
 
 91.3%
Turks
 
 4.9%
others and indefinable
 
 3.8%

Total population (2011 census): 121 752[14]
Ethnic groups (2011 census):[15] Identified themselves: 95,175 persons:

  • Bulgarians: 86 847 ( 91,25% )
  • Turks: 4 696 ( 4,93% )
  • Others and indefinable: 3 632 ( 3,82% )

A further 26,000 persons in the Province did not declare their ethnic group at the 2011 census.

In the 2001 census, 132,654 people of the population of 140,066 of Smolyan Province identified themselves as belonging to one of the following ethnic groups:[11]

Ethnic groupPopulationPercentage
Bulgarians122,80687.677%
Turkish6,2124.435%
Romani6860.49%
Russians1110.079%
Armenians420.03%
Greeks130.009%
Ukrainians270.019%
Jewish10.001%
Romanians10.001%
Other550.039%

Language

In the 2001 census, 135,761 people of the population of 140,066 of Smolyan Province identified one of the following as their mother tongue (with percentage of total population): 129,181 Bulgarian (92.2%), 5,782 Turkish (4.1%), 532 Romani (0.4%) and 266 other (0.2%).[10]

Religion
Religions in Smolyan Province (2011 census)
Religious group Percentage
No answer or Irreligious
 
 61.4%
Muslim
 
 19.6%
Orthodox Christian
 
 19.1%

Unlike Kardzhali Province where the majority of the Muslim population is Turkish, the Muslim population of Smolyan Province is made up mostly of Muslim Bulgarians. The Muslim population is mainly concentrated in the municipalities Banite, Borino, Dospat, Madan and Rudozem. The Orthodox-Christians population live predominantly in the municipality of Smolyan and the municipality of Chepelare. The religious structure of the municipalities of Devin, Nedelino and Zlatograd is mixed with Pomaks as well as Orthodox-Christians.

Religious adherence in the province according to 2011 census:[16]

Census 2011
religious adherence population %
Answer not mentioned 75 171 50,8%
Muslims 29 001 19,6%
Orthodox Christians 28 294 19,1%
Others and declared irreligious 15 632 10,6%
total 148,098 100%

Economy

The economy of the province is based on tourism, mining, timber and machine industries and livestock raising. The main crops of the region are potatoes (about 30% of the national production), rye and barley; but sheep, pigs and cattle are of greater importance for the agriculture. In the eastern parts of the province are located more than 20 lead and zinc mines, which form one of the most extensive ore deposits in the Balkans. The dense coniferous forests are prerequisite for well-developed timber industry in Dospat, Smolyan, Devin. In Smolyan there are big plants producing machine tools and other machinery, while textile industry is mainly developed to the east in Nedelino, Zlatograd, Madan and Rudozem. There is also a synthetic rubber plant in Madan

Bulgaria's national observatory, Rozhen Observatory, is located near Chepelare. The primary of Media of Bulgaria has a 2-meter mirror, and is the largest observatory in SE Europe.

See also

References
  1. (in English) Bulgarian Provinces area and population 1999 — National Center for Regional Development — page 90-91 Archived 2011-01-13 at the Wayback Machine
  2. (in English) Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - Bulgarian provinces and municipalities in 2009
  3. (in English) „WorldCityPopulation“
  4. „pop-stat.mashke.org“
  5. Oblast Haskovo Archived 2009-06-05 at the Wayback Machine, official website
  6. (in English) Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - Bulgarian towns in 2009
  7. „pop-stat.mashke.org“
  8. (in English) Bulgarian National Statistical Institute – Bulgarian villages under 1000 inhabitants – December 2009
  9. (in English) Bulgarian National Statistical Institute – Bulgarian Settlements 1000–5000 inhabitants – December 2009
  10. (in Bulgarian) Population to 01.03.2001 by District and Mother Tongue from Bulgarian National Statistical Institute: Census 2001
  11. (in Bulgarian) Population to 01.03.2001 by District and Ethnic Group from Bulgarian National Statistical Institute: Census 2001
  12. (in Bulgarian) Population to 01.03.2001 by Area and Sex from Bulgarian National Statistical Institute: Census 2001
  13. (in English) Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - Population by age in 2009 Archived 2012-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
  14. (in Bulgarian) Population on 01.02.2011 by provinces, municipalities, settlements and age; National Statistical Institute
  15. Population by province, municipality, settlement and ethnic identification, by 01.02.2011; Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (in Bulgarian)
  16. (in Bulgarian) Religious adherence in Bulgaria - census 2001
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