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Thursday, October 02, 2003

Bulgaria: Only Pensioners Here

Little by little the Bulgarian reality is sinking into the popular consciousness. My Bulgarian research assistant has sent me this cutting from the Bugarian press:

Unemployment and poverty drove away the young people. In 2 decades Bulgarian population will be of pensioners mostly.

Over 1,000,000 people emigrated from this country in the wake of 1989, the Bulgarian National Radio released, quoting data of the Generalia 21 Youth Organization. Of them, 840,000 were aged under 29. According to the statistics, young people living in Bulgaria are only 1,150,000. Their number is expected to fall down to 1 million in a decade, and in two decades it is expected to be reduced to 670,000. Young people are emigrating en masse for unemployment, dramatically low living standards and social instability. Soon the population of Bulgaria will be constituted of pensioners mostly, commented experts at the discussion on youth policy-making held in Borovets. The other reasons for the fall in population are the low birth rates and high death ones. Annually, Bulgaria's population is decreasing by 45,000 to 50,000 people in average.

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