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Updates: 

Under Population history, I replaced the 1975 census figures with slightly more accurate ones from source [7].

I've added 2011 census data from source [6]. This source also lists 2001 populations, and the figures it gives are almost all slightly lower than the ones from source [5]. The total country population is 0.05% lower according to source [6]. I have used the new data in the Population history section, figuring that they represent a correction to earlier data, since both sources were published by the same organization.

Bulgaria's NUTS codes were completely revised in 2007.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9 was published on 2007-11-28. For Bulgaria, the changes are all to the spellings of region names. Bulgaria has adopted a new official Romanization scheme. Most of the new names are the same as in the main table below. A few of them are listed as variants under "Other names of subdivisions".

The 1999 reorganization from nine regions to 28 is reflected by Change Notice 5 to FIPS PUB 10-4 (2000-08-10) and by ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 (2002-05-21).

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on 1998-12-15. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Bulgaria, the draft standard showed nine regions. Each one was assigned a single-digit code. The final standard showed the same nine regions. Each one had a two-digit code, which was the former code with a zero prefixed. For example, the code for Burgas changed from "2" to "02".

Country overview: 

Short name	BULGARIA
ISO code	BG
FIPS code	BU
Language	Bulgarian (bg)
Time zone	+2 ~
Capital	Sofiya

 

Bulgaria began the 20th century as a tributary principality of the Ottoman Empire. It consisted of Bulgaria proper and Eastern Rumelia. On 1908-10-05 it became an independent kingdom. In 1913, as a result of the First Balkan War, Bulgaria acquired territory from the Ottoman Empire in what is now southern Bulgaria, Greek Thrace, and a small part of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In the northeast, however, it ceded territory around Bazargic (Dobitsch) to Romania. In 1915, it acquired another small slice of the Ottoman Empire around Orestias and Dimotika, now in Greece. In the Peace of Sèvres (1920), Bulgaria lost part of Thrace to Greece. The Peace of Lausanne (1923) gave more of Thrace to Greece, resulting in the present-day border between Bulgaria and Greece. The Treaty of Craiova (1940-09-08) transferred Durostor (Silistra) and Caliacra (Tolbukhin) provinces (together known as Southern Dobruja) from Romania to Bulgaria. After World War II, the peace treaty restored Bulgaria to its borders of 1941-01-01, canceling out its conquests in Thrace and southern Yugoslavia. In a referendum, voters chose to end the monarchy and form a republic. The first general election went to the Communists. Bulgaria remained in the Communist bloc until the Iron Curtain fell in 1991.

Other names of country: 

1. Bulgarian: Republika Bulgaria (formal)
2. Danish: Bulgarien
3. Dutch: Bulgarije, Republiek Bulgarije (formal)
4. English: Republic of Bulgaria (formal)
5. Finnish: Bulgaria
6. French: Bulgarie f
7. German: Bulgarien n
8. Icelandic: Búlgaría
9. Italian: Bulgaria f
10. Norwegian: Bulgaria, Republikken Bulgaria (formal)
11. Portuguese: Bulgária, República f da Bulgária f (formal)
12. Russian: Республика Болгария (formal)
13. Spanish: Bulgaria, República f de Bulgaria f (formal)
14. Swedish: Bulgarien
15. Turkish: Bulgaristan, Bulgaristan Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Land of the Bulgars. Bulgar comes from the Turkish word for mixed, since the Bulgars had mixed origins.

Primary subdivisions: 

Bulgaria is divided into 28 oblasti (regions).

Region	HASC	ISO	NUTS	FIPS	Post	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Reg
Blagoevgrad	BG.BL	01	BG413	BU38	2700	323,552	6,450	2,490	8
Burgas	BG.BR	02	BG341	BU39	8000	415,817	7,748	2,992	2
Dobrich	BG.DO	08	BG332	BU40	9300	189,677	4,720	1,822	3
Gabrovo	BG.GB	07	BG322	BU41	5300	122,702	2,023	781	4
Grad Sofiya	BG.SG	22	BG411	BU42	1000	1,291,591	1,349	521	1
Khaskovo	BG.KK	26	BG422	BU43	6300	246,238	5,533	2,136	9
Kurdzhali	BG.KZ	09	BG425	BU44	6600	152,808	3,209	1,239	9
Kyustendil	BG.KY	10	BG415	BU45	2500	136,686	3,052	1,178	8
Lovech	BG.LV	11	BG315	BU46	5500	141,422	4,129	1,594	4
Montana	BG.MT	12	BG312	BU47	3400	148,098	3,636	1,404	5
Pazardzhik	BG.PZ	13	BG423	BU48	4400	275,548	4,457	1,721	6
Pernik	BG.PN	14	BG414	BU49	2300	133,530	2,394	924	8
Pleven	BG.PV	15	BG314	BU50	5800	269,752	4,336	1,674	4
Plovdiv	BG.PD	16	BG421	BU51	4000	683,027	5,973	2,306	6
Razgrad	BG.RG	17	BG324	BU52	7200	125,190	2,640	1,019	7
Ruse	BG.RS	18	BG323	BU53	7000	235,252	2,803	1,082	7
Shumen	BG.SH	27	BG333	BU54	9700	180,528	3,390	1,309	3
Silistra	BG.SI	19	BG325	BU55	7500	119,474	2,846	1,099	7
Sliven	BG.SL	20	BG342	BU56	8800	197,473	3,544	1,368	2
Smolyan	BG.SM	21	BG424	BU57	4700	121,752	3,193	1,233	6
Sofiya	BG.SF	23	BG412	BU58	2000	247,489	7,062	2,727	8
Stara Zagora	BG.SZ	24	BG344	BU59	6000	333,265	5,151	1,989	9
Turgovishte	BG.TU	25	BG334	BU60	7700	120,818	2,559	988	7
Varna	BG.VN	03	BG331	BU61	9000	475,074	3,820	1,475	3
Veliko Turnovo	BG.VT	04	BG321	BU62	5000	258,494	4,662	1,800	4
Vidin	BG.VD	05	BG311	BU63	3700	101,018	3,033	1,171	5
Vratsa	BG.VR	06	BG313	BU64	3000	186,848	3,938	1,520	5
Yambol	BG.YA	28	BG343	BU65	8600	131,447	3,356	1,296	2
28 provinces						7,364,570	111,002	42,858
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Region codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "BG-" to the code (ex: BG-05 represents Vidin). NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Post: Start of postal code range for province. Population: 2011-02-01 census (source [6]). Area: Source [2]. Reg: ISO code of former region containing this province (see Change history, 1993) Capitals: have the same names as the provinces, except that Sofiya is the capital of Grad Sofiya.

Postal codes: 

Bulgaria uses four-digit postal codes. Postal codes for Bulgarian addresses can be identified by prefixing them with BG-.

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Bulgaria page.

There are six level-2 NUTS subdivisions of Bulgaria:

Region	NUTS
North Central	BG32
Northeastern	BG33
Northwestern	BG31
South Central	BG42
Southeastern	BG34
Southwestern	BG41

 

The NUTS codes define a hierarchical set of subdivisions of Bulgaria. At level 1, BG3 is called "Northern and Southeastern Bulgaria" and BG4 is called "Southwest and South Central Bulgaria". The level-3 subdivisions are the provinces. The municipalities are the level-4 NUTS areas, and at level 5 there are "settlements". For any subdivision that has a NUTS code, when the last digit of the code is truncated, the result is the NUTS code for the higher-level division that contains it. There have been two previous versions of NUTS codes for Bulgaria. The first set all began with BG0. Around 2000-2003, they were replaced by codes beginning with BG1 and BG2. The current set was introduced about 2007-01-01.

In 1959, there were thirteen okruzhi (provinces; sing. okrug), divided into 105 okolii (counties; sing. okolia), which were further divided into 2,142 obshchini (municipalities; sing. obshchina). A reform that year eliminated the counties, cut the provinces into 28 smaller provinces, and cut the number of municipalities roughly in half. A reform of 1979 cut the number of municipalities from 1,374 to 291. There were 300 municipalities by 1986. In 1987, the provinces were merged to form nine oblasti (regions; sing. oblast). In 1992, these were subdivided into a total of 279 municipalities. As of 2005, the secondary administrative divisions of Bulgaria are 264 municipalities.

Territorial extent: 

The UN LOCODE page  for Bulgaria lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Blagoevgrad: Bulgarian: city of Blagoev, for Dimitar Blagoev, Bulgarian politician and writer
2. Burgas: possibly from Ancient Greek pyrgos: walled city
3. Dimitrovgrad: Bulgarian: city of Dimitrov, for Gyorgy Mikhailovich Dimitrov, Bulgarian politician
4. Khaskovo: possibly from Turkish has: dwelling place
5. Plovdiv: the city was named Philippopolis by Philip II of Macedonia. The inhabitants corrupted Philip into Pulpu, and replaced -opolis (city) with their own name for city, diva.
6. Sofiya: Named by Turks for the church of Saint Sophia, which they changed to a mosque

Change history: 

1. 1909: Before the first Balkan war, the districts of Bulgaria were Burgas, Kustendil, Pleven, Plovdiv, Ruse, Shumen, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Turnovo, Varna, Vidin, and Vratsa.
2. 1945: Bulgaria had nine regions at the end of World War II, as listed in this table.

Region	Population
Burgas	629,593
Gorna Dzhumaya	252,258
Pleven	527,708
Plovdiv	1,056,436
Ruse	876,993
Sofiya	1,205,484
Stara Zagora	821,764
Varna	880,484
Vratsa	771,486
9 regions	7,022,206
Population: 1946-12-31 census

1. 1949-09-22: Nine regions replaced by 15 provinces: Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Haskovo, Pleven, Plovdiv, Ruse, Shumen, Sofiya, Sofiya City, Stalin, Stara Zagora, Vidin, Vratsa, and Yambol. Capital of Stalin renamed from Varna to Stalin.
2. 1950: Shumen province and its capital renamed to Kolarovgrad.
3. 1950: Capital of Blagoevgrad province renamed from Gorna Dzhumaya to Blagoevgrad.
4. 1951-01-02: Vidin province merged into Vratsa, and Yambol merged into Burgas.
5. ~1953: Capital of Gorna Oryahovitsa moved to Veliko Turnovo, and province renamed accordingly.
6. 1956: Stalin province and its capital renamed to Varna.
7. 1959: The thirteen provinces were regrouped into 28 provinces.
8. 1965: Kolarovgrad province and its capital renamed back to Shumen. At this time, the provinces were:

Province	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Region
Blagoevgrad	BU01	303,000	6,478	Sofiya
Burgas	BU02	381,000	7,618	Burgas
Gabrovo	BU03	169,000	2,053	Lovech
Grad Sofiya	BU20	895,000	1,119	Grad Sofiya
Khaskovo	BU04	290,000	4,033	Khaskovo
Kurdzhali	BU05	284,000	4,032	Khaskovo
Kyustendil	BU06	197,000	3,027	Sofiya
Lovech	BU07	217,000	4,134	Lovech
Mikhaylovgrad	BU08	241,000	3,595	Mikhaylovgrad
Pazardzhik	BU09	297,000	4,393	Plovdiv
Pernik	BU10	181,000	2,377	Sofiya
Pleven	BU11	352,000	4,216	Lovech
Plovdiv	BU12	645,000	5,588	Plovdiv
Razgrad	BU13	198,000	2,648	Razgrad
Ruse	BU14	273,000	2,616	Razgrad
Shumen	BU15	243,000	3,365	Varna
Silistra	BU16	171,000	2,862	Razgrad
Sliven	BU17	227,000	3,646	Burgas
Smolyan	BU18	160,000	3,532	Plovdiv
Sofiya	BU19	318,000	7,277	Sofiya
Stara Zagora	BU21	352,000	4,959	Khaskovo
Tolbukhin	BU22	236,000	4,700	Varna
Turgovishte	BU23	178,000	2,735	Razgrad
Varna	BU24	367,000	3,847	Varna
Veliko Turnovo	BU25	339,000	4,684	Lovech
Vidin	BU26	181,000	3,071	Mikhaylovgrad
Vratsa	BU27	309,000	4,098	Mikhaylovgrad
Yambol	BU28	223,000	4,209	Burgas
28 provinces		8,227,000	110,912
FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1965-12-01 census. Region: Region containing the province after 1987. Capitals: have the same names as the provinces, except that Sofiya is the capital of Grad Sofiya.

1. 1987-08: Nine regions formed by consolidating the 28 provinces. Topolovgrad municipality transferred from Yambol province to Khaskovo region.
2. ~1991: Name of Mikhaylovgrad region changed to Montana.
3. ~1993: Name of Razgrad region changed to Ruse. Since Bulgarian regions have the same names as their capitals, this probably means that the capital of the region moved from Razgrad to Ruse. Both the ISO and FIPS standards use the spelling Ruse, but Rousse is also a common transliteration of the region's name. This is how the regions stood at that time:

Region	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)
Burgas	BG.BU	2	BU29	851,709	14,657
Grad Sofiya	BG.GS	1	BU30	1,190,126	1,311
Khaskovo	BG.HA	9	BU31	906,648	13,892
Lovech	BG.LO	4	BU32	1,017,114	15,150
Montana	BG.MO	5	BU33	630,513	10,607
Plovdiv	BG.PL	6	BU34	1,220,370	13,628
Ruse	BG.RA	7	BU35	768,514	10,842
Sofiya	BG.SO	8	BU36	986,253	18,979
Varna	BG.VA	3	BU37	916,070	11,929
9 regions				8,487,317	110,995
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 1992-12-04 census (source [1]). Capitals: have the same name as their divisions, except that the capital of Grad Sofiya is Sofiya.

1. 1999-01-08: Bulgaria reorganized from nine regions into 28. The new regions seem to be the same as the provinces prior to 1987, except for some name changes: Mikhaylovgrad to Montana, and Tolbukhin to Dobrich. The name of Tolbukhin's capital was also changed to Dobrich, which had been the city's name before 1949; it had also been called Bazargic under Romanian rule, until 1940.
2. 2001-07-03: Knezha municipality transferred from Vratsa region to Pleven.
3. 2001-07-17, 2003-04-11, 2003-09-17, 2004-02-25: Several small transfers of territory between Razgrad and Ruse regions took place, all sub-municipality units, mostly to the advantage of Ruse.
4. 2007-01-01: Bulgaria joined the European Union.

Other names of subdivisions: 

The Bulgarian language uses a Cyrillic alphabet, so all these names are transliterated into the Roman alphabet. Some of the variant names are due to different transliteration schemes. Also note that oblasti and okruzhi come and go, but cities stay. Variant names are shown for capitals, which have the same name as their division whenever the division exists.

1. Blagoevgrad: Gorna Djumaya, Gorna Dzhumaya (obsolete)
2. Burgas: Bourgas (variant)
3. Grad Sofiya: Sofia City (English); Sofia-Grad (variant)
4. Khaskovo: Haskovo (variant)
5. Kurdzhali: Kârdžali, Kardzhali, Kirjali, Kurdjali (variant)
6. Kyustendil: Keustendil, Kjustendil (variant)
7. Lovech: Loveč (variant)
8. Montana: Mikhaylovgrad, Mihailovgrad (obsolete)
9. Pazardzhik: Pazardjik (variant); Tatar Pazardžik (obsolete)
10. Pleven: Plévène (French); Plevila, Plevna (obsolete); Plyeven (variant)
11. Plovdiv: Philippopolis (obsolete)
12. Shumen: Choumen (French); Kolarovgrad, Šumla (obsolete); Šumen (variant)
13. Sliven: Slivène (French); Slivno (obsolete)
14. Smolyan: Smoljan (variant)
15. Sofiya: Sofia, Sofija (variant); Sofía (Spanish); Sofya (Turkish); София (Russian)
16. Ruse: Rousse (variant); Russe, Ruščuk, Rustchuk (obsolete)
17. Tolbukhin: Bazargic, Bazardzhik, Dobritch, Dobrici, Hagi Oglu (obsolete); Tolboukhin (French); Tolbuhin (variant)
18. Turgovishte: Tâgovište, Targovishte, Torgovishte (variant)
19. Veliko Turnovo: Gorna Oryahovitsa, Gorna Orjahovica (obsolete); Turnovo, Tirnovo, Trnova, Veliko Tarnovo (variant)
20. Varna: Stalin (obsolete)
21. Vratsa: Vraca (variant)
22. Yambol: Jambol (variant); Jamboli (obsolete)

Population history:

Region	1965-12-01	1975-12-02	1985-12-04	1992-12-04	2001-03-01	2011-02-01
Blagoevgrad	303,000	322,974	346,000	351,637	341,173	323,552
Burgas	381,000	420,268	446,000	440,372	423,547	415,817
Dobrich	236,000	250,398	256,000	232,780	215,217	189,677
Gabrovo	169,000	175,933	178,000	161,987	144,125	122,702
Grad Sofiya	895,000	1,066,299	1,193,000	1,190,126	1,170,842	1,291,591
Khaskovo	290,000	293,029	300,000	295,503	277,478	246,238
Kurdzhali	284,000	287,099	298,000	213,806	164,019	152,808
Kyustendil	197,000	198,876	193,000	181,347	162,534	136,686
Lovech	217,000	216,844	204,000	190,262	169,951	141,422
Montana	241,000	235,449	226,000	208,198	182,258	148,098
Pazardzhik	297,000	314,006	326,000	326,123	310,723	275,548
Pernik	181,000	174,624	176,000	163,307	149,832	133,530
Pleven	352,000	358,972	367,000	346,614	311,985	269,752
Plovdiv	645,000	719,119	758,000	734,495	715,816	683,027
Razgrad	198,000	204,126	197,000	167,410	152,417	125,190
Ruse	273,000	293,073	303,000	288,702	266,157	235,252
Shumen	243,000	253,437	256,000	220,320	204,378	180,528
Silistra	171,000	176,428	174,000	161,063	142,000	119,474
Sliven	227,000	237,386	239,000	234,785	218,474	197,473
Smolyan	160,000	162,490	171,000	159,752	140,066	121,752
Sofiya	318,000	321,417	304,000	289,962	273,240	247,489
Stara Zagora	352,000	390,207	415,000	397,339	370,615	333,265
Turgovishte	178,000	178,656	172,000	151,339	137,689	120,818
Varna	367,000	431,024	466,000	462,970	462,013	475,074
Veliko Turnovo	339,000	349,108	338,000	318,251	293,172	258,494
Vidin	181,000	178,215	165,000	151,636	130,074	101,018
Vratsa	309,000	311,190	288,000	270,679	243,036	186,848
Yambol	223,000	207,124	204,000	176,552	156,070	131,447
Totals	8,227,000	8,727,771	8,959,000	8,487,317	7,928,901	7,364,570

Sources: 

1. [1] The GeoHive Bulgaria page  formerly had 1992-12-04 census data by province (retrieved 2005-10-31 from http://212.204.253.230/cd/link.php?xml=bg&xsl=neo1, now a dead link). I added the populations of the provinces in each region.
2. [2] European Integration, Regional Specialization and Location of Industrial Activity in Bulgaria , by Julia Spiridonova. Table 23, pp. 90-91. Other published sources give different areas; these data were the most plausible I found (retrieved 2005-10-31).
3. [3] National Statistical Institute  website (retrieved 2005-10-31).
4. [4] European Union Publications Office  NUTS list (retrieved 2010-01-05).
5. [5] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
6. [6] 2011 Census Results . National Statistical Institute (retrieved 2014-01-04).
7. [7] 1979 Demographic Yearbook , 31st Ed. Statistical Office, United Nations, New York, 1980 (retrieved 2011-12-28).