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MFA Report: Bulgarian expats estimated at around 3 million

published on 1/30/23 12:57 PM

About 2.8 million Bulgarians live outside Bulgaria. The report was provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the request of the National Assembly for up-to-date information on the size of the Bulgarian diaspora by country and location.

Foreign Minister Nikolay Milkov pointed out in his report that Bulgarian citizens are not obliged to register at Bulgarian diplomatic missions abroad and that the MFA does not have accurate data on their number abroad, as many countries do not have official statistics.

However, unofficial data show that the largest diaspora is in Turkey - between 600 and 700 thousand Bulgarian citizens, followed by the UK - 389 270, the USA - 350 000, Spain - 215 000. Officially, 410 885 Bulgarians are registered in Germany and only 867 in Russia.

The 2021 census showed that just over 6.5 million people live in Bulgaria.

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Radio Bulgaria News Bulgaria diaspora MFA report

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