Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition | Page 8

All these are described in separate articles.
Population.--The area of northern Bulgaria is 24,535 sq. m.; of Eastern
Rumelia 12,705 sq. m.; of united Bulgaria, 37,240 sq. m. According to
the census of the 12th of January 1906, the population of northern
Bulgaria was 2,853,704; of Eastern Rumelia, 1,174,535; of united
Bulgaria, 4,028,239 or 88 per sq. m. Bulgaria thus ranks between
Rumania and Portugal in regard to area; between the Netherlands and

Switzerland in regard to population: in density of population it may be
compared with Spain and Greece.
The first census of united Bulgaria was taken in 1888: it gave the total
population as 3,154,375. In January 1893 the population was 3,310,713;
in January 1901, 3,744,283.
The movement of the population at intervals of five years has been as
follows:--
--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Year. |
Marriages. | Births | Still- | Deaths. | Natural | | | |(living). | born. |
|Increase.[1]| ---------------------------------------------------------------------
| 1882 | 19,795 | 74,642 | 300 | 38,884 | 35,758 | | 1887 | 20,089 | 83,179
| 144 | 39,396 | 43,783 | | 1892 | 27,553 | 117,883 | 321 | 103,550 |
14,333 | | 1897 | 29,227 | 149,631 | 858 | 90,134 | 59,497 | | 1902 |
36,041 | 149,542 | 823 | 91,093 | 58,449 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Excess of births over deaths.
The death-rate shows a tendency to rise. In the five years 1882-1886
the mean death-rate was 18.0 per 1000; in 1887-1891, 20.4; in
1892-1896, 27.0; in 1897-1902, 23.92. Infant mortality is high,
especially among the peasants. As the less healthy infants rarely
survive, the adult population is in general robust, hardy and long-lived.
The census of January 1901 gives 2719 persons of 100 years and
upwards. Young men, as a rule, marry betore the age of twenty-five,
girls before eighteen. The number of illegitimate births is
inconsiderable, averaging only 0.12 of the total. The population
according to sex in 1901 is given as 1,909,567 males and 1,834,716
females, or 51 males to 49 females. A somewhat similar disparity may
be observed in the other countries of the Peninsula. Classified
according to occupation, 2,802,603 persons, or 74.85% of the
population, are engaged in agriculture; 360,834 in various productive
industries; 118,824 in the service of the government or the exercise of
liberal professions, and 148,899 in commerce. The population
according to race cannot be stated with absolute accuracy, but it is

approximately shown by the census of 1901, which gives the various
nationalities according to language as follows:--Bulgars, 2,888,219;
Turks, 531,240; Rumans, 71,063; Greeks, 66,635; Gipsies (Tziganes),
89,549; Jews (Spanish speaking), 33,661; Tatars, [v.04 p.0777] 18,884;
Armenians, 14,581; other nationalities, 30,451. The Bulgarian
inhabitants of the Peninsula beyond the limits of the principality may,
perhaps, be estimated at 1,500,000 or 1,600,000, and the grand total of
the race possibly reaches 5,500,000.
Ethnology.--The Bulgarians, who constitute 77.14% of the inhabitants
of the kingdom, are found in their purest type in the mountain districts,
the Ottoman conquest and subsequent colonization having introduced a
mixed population into the plains.
The devastation of the country which followed the Turkish invasion
resulted in the extirpation or flight of a large proportion of the
Bulgarian inhabitants of the lowlands, who were replaced by Turkish
colonists. The mountainous districts, however, retained their original
population and sheltered large numbers of the fugitives. The passage of
the Turkish armies during the wars with Austria, Poland and Russia led
to further Bulgarian emigrations. The flight to the Banat, where 22,000
Bulgarians still remain, took place in 1730. At the beginning of the
19th century the majority of the population of the Eastern Rumelian
plain was Turkish. The Turkish colony, however, declined, partly in
consequence of the drain caused by military service, while the
Bulgarian remnant increased, notwithstanding a considerable
emigration to Bessarabia before and after the Russo-Turkish campaign
of 1828. Efforts were made by the Porte to strengthen the Moslem
element by planting colonies of Tatars in 1861 and Circassians in 1864.
The advance of the Russian army in 1877-1878 caused an enormous
exodus of the Turkish population, of which only a small proportion
returned to settle permanently. The emigration continued after the
conclusion of peace, and is still in progress, notwithstanding the efforts
of the Bulgarian government to arrest it. In twenty years (1879-1899),
at least 150,000 Turkish peasants left Bulgaria. Much of the land thus
abandoned still remains unoccupied. On the other hand, a considerable
influx of Bulgarians from Macedonia, the vilayet of Adrianople,

Bessarabia, and the Dobrudja took place within the same period, and
the inhabitants of the mountain villages show a tendency to migrate
into the richer districts of the plains.
The northern slopes of the Balkans from Belogradchik to Elena are
inhabited almost exclusively by Bulgarians; in Eastern Rumelia the
national element is strongest