Depopulated Bulgaria: 592 Villages have only One Person Each or are Completely Deserted

A total of 592 villages in Bulgaria have no population or a single-digit number of inhabitants. This is shown by a BTA reference in the data as of December 31, 2021 of the National Register of Settlements (NRS) of the NSI.

As of the same date, there are 5257 settlements in the country, of which 257 are towns, 4998 are villages, and there are two monasteries with the status of a settlement - Klisur and Rila.

Villages without a population or with a single-digit number of inhabitants are 15 more than in the previous year, 2020, the data show. The total number of settlements in which one to a maximum of nine people live is 425, and 167 are those in which there is no permanent resident. Villages without population increase by three compared to 2020.

There are exactly 60 villages with one inhabitant in the country. Two people live in 54 settlements, and three in 50. Fifty-one are the settlements in Bulgaria with four inhabitants each. There are 38 villages with a permanent population of five people, and 37 villages with six inhabitants. A total of 41 villages have seven inhabitants, another 51 have eight inhabitants, and 43 villages have a population of nine.

Most villages without a population and with a single-digit number of inhabitants are in Gabrovo region

Gabrovo region has the most completely deserted villages or villages with a single-digit number of inhabitants - a total of 163 or 3 more compared to the previous year. There are a total of 349 settlements in this region, so nearly half of them are either uninhabited or have less than 10 inhabitants.

In general, deserted settlements are located in 12 regions of the country, and those with a single-digit number of inhabitants are scattered in 22 regions.