Romani people in Bulgaria
Province Romani population ( 2011 census ) %
Blagoevgrad Province 9,739 3.43%
Burgas Province 18,424 4.97%
Dobrich Province 15,323 8.81%
Gabrovo Province 1,305 1.13%
Haskovo Province 15,889 6.99%
Kardzhali Province 1,296 0.99%
Kyustendil Province 8,305 6.36%
Lovech Province 5,705 4.38%
Montana Province 18,228 12.71%
Pazardzhik Province 20,350 8.27%
Pernik Province 3,560 2.84%
Pleven Province 9,961 4.15%
Plovdiv Province 30,202 4.87%
Razgrad Province 5,719 5.00%
Ruse Province 8,615 3.98%
Shumen Province 13,847 8.24%
Silistra Province 5,697 5.11%
Sliven Province 20,478 11.82%
Smolyan Province 448 0.47%
Sofia City Province 18,284 1.55%
Demographics
Romani minority in Bulgaria ( census 2001 ) Romani minority in Bulgaria ( census 2001 ) Distribution of the Romani in Bulgaria according to the 2001 census Distribution of the Roma ethnic groups by municipalities in Bulgaria according to the 2011 census ( represented as percentage of the municipality population ) Distribution of ethnic groups according to the 2011 census According to the 2011 census of the population of Bulgaria , there are 325,343 Gypsies in Bulgaria , [ 1 ] or 4.4 percent . 180,266 of these are urban residents and 145,077 rural . [ 57 ] Most of the Roma , 66% , are young children and adults up to 29 years old , the same group constitutes 37% among ethnic Bulgarians , while 5% of Roma are 60 years and over , Bulgarians are 22% . [ 58 ] From the 1992 census to the 2001 census , the number of Romani in the country has increased by 57,512 , or 18.4% . The Romani were only 2.8% in 1910 and 2.0% in 1920 . [ 59 ] While the Romani are present in all provinces of Bulgaria , their highest percentages are in Montana Province ( 12.5% ) and Sliven Province ( 12.3% ) and their smallest percentage is in Smolyan Province , where they number 686 [ 60 ] — about 0.05% of the population . Varbitsa is possibly the only urban settlement where the Romani are the most numerous group . The largest Romani quarters are Stolipinovo in Plovdiv and Fakulteta in Sofia . The number of places where Romani constitute more than 50% of the population has doubled from the 1992 to the 2001 census . The largest village with a Romani majority is Gradets in Kotel Municipality .
Romani people ( , ) in Bulgaria constitute Europe's densest Romani minority. The Romani people in Bulgaria speak Bulgarian, Turkish or Romani, depending on the region and their religious affiliations. According to the latest census in 2011, the number of the Romani is 325,343, constituting 4.4% of the total population, in which only one ethnic group could be opted as an answer and 10% of the total population did not respond to the question on ethnic group. In a conclusive report of the census sent to Eurostat, the authors of the census (the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria) identified the census results on ethnicity as a gross manipulation. The former head of the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, Reneta Indzhova claims to have been fired by the Bulgarian Prime Minister in 2014 for attempting to check the actual number of the Romani and implied that neither the census did enumerate the Romani, nor its statistics did provide the real data. Unlike other censuses under Eurostat, which require the ethnic identification to be verified by a family tree, in the Bulgarian census the ethnic identification is completely up to the voluntarily identification of the enumerated and not up to any further investigation by the enumerators. The previous 2001 census recorded 370,908 Romani (4.7% of the population). The preceding 1992 census recorded 313,396 Romani (3.7% of the population), while a secret backstage 1992 census ordered by the Ministry of Interior recorded a figure of 550,000 Romani (6.5% of the population); the Ministry of Interior ordered at least two other secret censuses to enumerate the Romani in denial, the one in 1980 recorded 523,519 Romani, while the one in 1989 recorded that the number of the Romani was 576,927 (6.5% of the population) and that over half of the Romani identified as Turks. The majority of the estimated 200,000-400,000 Muslim Romani tend to identify themselves as ethnic Turks, some deny their origin, or identify as Bulgarians. The demographic collapse in Bulgaria affects only ethnic groups other than the Romani. According to data of the European Commission, to which Eurostat belongs, the Romani in Bulgaria number 750,000 and they constitute 10.33% of the population. An NGO estimates that the number of the Romani in Bulgaria is twice as this high and their population grows by 35,000 a year.