Bulgaria: Plovdiv Is Most-Preferred Destination for Internal Migration

Of the close to 200 000 people in Bulgaria who changed address within the country in 2020, more than 21,000 chose Plovdiv district as their new place of residence, the municipality said on its website on April 19, citing National Statistical Institute (NSI) data.

This makes the Plovdiv district Bulgaria's most-preferred destination for internal migration.

Of those who moved to Plovdiv, 7.7 per cent came from Bulgaria's capital city Sofia, four per cent from Pazardzhik and 3.7 per cent from Smolyan.

The statement, again citing the NSI, said that of the 37,364 people who changed their address from abroad to Bulgaria in 2020, close to 3,000 moved to Plovdiv district.

As to the city of Plovdiv itself, more than 9,000 people chose it as their new home, 1,500 more than in 2019.

"The fact that Plovdiv is an industrial leader with nearly 75,000 jobs in manufacturing and a second centre for outsourcing and information technology with over 7,000 employees in the sector, motivates thousands of people to settle in the city or in neighbouring municipalities," the statement said.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many of those who had moved into the district buy property in smaller towns at the outskirts of the city.

Thus they were close to jobs and services offered in the city and, at the same time, had privacy, the statement said.

Given this, Plovdiv municipality planned to strongly boost relations with neighbouring municipalities, where hundreds of Bulgarian and foreign manufacturing companies offer attractive jobs, the statement said.

It said that 666,398 people are permanently registered in the district, which represents 9.6 per cent of the population of Bulgaria.