Bulgaria Will Work to Fight Population Decline - Social Min

Bulgaria's government is to adopt a set of measures to ensure the population will not fall below 7 million by 2030, Labor and Social Policy Minister Ivaylo Kalfin has said.

Kalfin, who is also Deputy Prime Minister in charge of demographic policies, has added that stimuli should be put forward to encourage family planning, and more options should be offered to combine career with raising children through flexible worktime.

He has warned that, unless new measures are adopted to fight the demographic crisis, the population might fall below 7 million by 2030, up from 7.2 million in 2014.

Some of the moves should be aimed at improving the quality of healthcare and education, he has argued.

Bulgaria's population is shrinking rapidly, (having been nearly 9 million at the end of the 1980s), partly due to the mass exodus of Bulgarians who have left the country since democratic changes began in 1989.

CIA estimates have placed Bulgaria at the bottom of both population growth rate and birth rate rankings.