In 2009, the Bulgarian capital registered a positive natural growth for the first time since 1992, the director of the Regional Health Center in Sofia has announced.

Last year, 1,290,000 people were registered in Sofia and 450,000 were the unregistered. Of them, 100,000 people work and live in the Bulgarian capital without changing their address registration, 200,000 people work but do not live in Sofia, 100,000 come to the capital for different reasons.

Doctor Krasimir Kushev has stated that the current tendencies in Bulgaria are for increasing the number of births and for a sharp drop in the number of abortions.

He also pointed out that the overall mortality rate in 2009 was 0,012% but the infant mortality rate steadily increased over the past three years. Its lowest level was in 2006 – 0,0044, while in 2009 it reached 0,0056.

"In Bulgaria, the pyramid of infant mortality is reversed," Kushev said.

He explained that in the EU the infant mortality rate is at its peak until the seventh day after birth, while in Bulgaria 43% of the deaths occur in the period from the 28th day after birth to the first year of the child.