As of end-December 2013 the population of Bulgaria was 7,245,677 persons representing 1.5% of the EU population, ranking the country at the 16th place immediately after Austria.

The negative tendencies in the development of demographic processes during the last decades and the resulting from them changes in the population number and structures strongly influence the basic society systems: economy, education, health insurance and social protection, the final data of Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute (NSI) study on Demographic Processes in 2013 showed.

The current demographic situation in the country is characterized by a continuing decrease of the population number, population aging, decreasing crude birth rate and still high level of mortality. As positive tendencies in 2013 could be mentioned the decreasing crude death rate and infant mortality rate and the increasing life expectancy at birth.

Compared to 2012, Bulgaria's population has decreased by 38 875 persons or 0.5%. The process of population aging continues, NSI informs. By the end of 2013 the number of persons aged 65 and over was 1,417,667 or 19.6% of the country population. Compared to 2012, the share of population aged 65 and over has increased by 0.4% and compared to 2001-by 2.7%.

Aging of population is observed in the bigger part of EU countries. At the beginning of 2013, the share of population aged 65 and over for EU-28 was 18.2% or 0.3% higher than the previous year. Highest is the share of elderly population in Italy-21.2%, followed by Germany (20.7%), Greece (20.1%) and Portugal (19.4%) and lowest in Ireland-12.2%.

The population aging in Bulgaria leads to increase of the population average age. It has increased from 40.4 years in 2001 to 41.2 years in 2005 and has reached 43.0 years by the end of 2013. Aging of population is observed both in urban and rural areas.

The number of population at working age as of 31.12.2013 was 4472 thousand persons or 61.7% of the total population. Despite the increasing retirement age, the population at working age has decreased by over 33 thousand or 0.7% compared to the previous year. By the end of 2013, the number of population over working age was 1718 thousand persons or 23.7% and under working age were 1056 thousand persons or 14.6% of the country population.

As of 31.12.2013, 5,291,675 or 73.0% of the total country population resided in urban areas and 1,954,002 or 27.0% - in rural ones.

The number of deaths in Bulgaria for 2013 is 104,345 and the crude mortality rate is 14.4‰. Compared to the previous year the number of deaths has decreased by 4936 or 4.5%. Despite the decrease of the absolute number, the crude mortality rate remains too high.

The mortality rate for EU-28 in 2012 is 9.9‰. Compared to the European countries, the mortality rate in Bulgaria is rather higher. Lowest is the mortality in Ireland-6.3‰ and Cyprus-6.6‰. The mortality rate in Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, France, Spain and the United Kingdom is below 9.0‰. Higher is the mortality in Latvia-14.3‰, Lithuania-13.7‰ and Hungary-13.0‰.

Life expectancy for the country, calculated for the period 2011-2013 is 74.5 years. Compared to the previous period it has increased by 0.4 years.

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