Explore Bulgaria

What to know before visiting Bulgaria

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. Bulgaria covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, and is the sixteenth-largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas. Bulgaria is a developing country, with an upper-middle-income economy, ranking 68th in the Human Development Index. Its market economy is part of the European Single Market and is largely based on services, followed by industry—especially machine building and mining—and agriculture. Widespread corruption is a major socioeconomic issue, although Bulgaria is no longer the most corrupt country in the European Union as of 2022 leaving behind Hungary and regionally ahead of Serbia, Turkey, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Albania and Kosovo. The country also faces a demographic crisis, with its population slowly shrinking, down from a peak of 9,009,018 in 1989, to roughly 6.4 million today. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, NATO, and the Council of Europe; it is also a founding member of the OSCE, and has taken a seat on the United Nations Security Council three times. -Wikipedia