The provinces of Bulgaria () are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the country. Since 1999, Bulgaria has been divided into 28 provinces ( – oblasti; singular: – oblast; also translated as "regions") which correspond approximately to the 28 districts (in – okrǎg, plural: – okrǎzi), that existed before 1987.
The provinces are further subdivided into 265 municipalities (singular: – obshtina, plural: – obshtini). Sofia – the capital city of Bulgaria and the largest settlement in the country – is the administrative centre of both Sofia Province and Sofia City Province (Sofia-grad). The capital is included (together with three other cities plus 34 villages) in Sofia Capital Municipality (over 90% of whose population lives in Sofia), which is the sole municipality comprising Sofia City province.
Terminology
thumb|left|400px|Distribution of provinces by [[NUTS statistical regions of Bulgaria|NUTS: Level 1 (regions): North Eastern, North Central, North Western, South Central, South Eastern, South Western; Level 2 (planning regions)]]
The provinces do not have official names – legally (in the President's decree on their constitution), they are not named but only described as "oblast with administrative centre [Noun]" – together with a list of the constituting municipalities. In Bulgaria they are usually called "[Adjective] Oblast"; occasionally they are referred to as "Oblast [Noun]" and rarely as "oblast with administrative centre [Noun]".
The Bulgarian term oblast (област) is preferably translated into English as "province", in order to avoid disambiguation and distinguish from the former unit called okrag ("окръг", translated as "district"), and the term region (регион, always translated as "region"). At any rate, "district" and "region" are sometimes still used to name these contemporary 28 units.
- Region: "28 regions (en) / région (fr) / oblast (bg) – in ISO 3166-2". Newsletter II-3 (2011-12-13, corrected 2011-12-15)
- District: "The territory of the South Central Region encompasses five districts – Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Smolyan, Haskovo, and Kyrdzhali" according to the European Commission.
Provinces
<!--{| align="center" style="margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;"
! colspan="3" style="background-color:#CDCDCD" align="center"| <span style="font-size:125%;">Provinces of Bulgaria</span>
|- valign="top"
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{| class="wikitable sortable" rules="all" style="border:1px solid #999; border-right:2px solid #999; border-bottom:2px solid #999; background-color:white; margin-top:1em; text-align:right;" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"
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!width="120px"| Province
!width="100px"| Population <small>(Census 2011)</small>
!width="100px"| Population <small>(Census 2021) The 9 large provinces are listed below, along with the pre-1987 districts (post-1999 small provinces) comprising them.
{| class="wikitable"
! 1987–1998<br/>oblasts !! Comprising former districts (future provinces)</tr>
| Burgas || Burgas, Sliven, Yambol</tr>
| Haskovo || Haskovo, Kardzhali, Stara Zagora, Segenovhrol</tr>
| Lovech || Gabrovo, Lovech, Pleven, Veliko Tarnovo</tr>
| Montana || Montana, Vidin, Vratsa</tr>
| Plovdiv || Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Smolyan</tr>
| Razgrad || Razgrad, Ruse, Silistra, Targovishte</tr>
| Sofia || Sofia City</tr>
| Sofia || Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil, Pernik, Sofia</tr>
| Varna || Dobrich, Shumen, Varna</tr>
|}
On 1 January 1999, the old districts were restored with some modifications; however, the designation oblast ("province") was kept.
See also
- Administrative divisions below the province level:
- List of cities and towns in Bulgaria
- List of villages in Bulgaria
- Municipalities of Bulgaria
- ISO 3166-2:BG
- List of Bulgarian constituencies, which are based on the provinces
- List of Bulgarian provinces by GDP
- List of governors of the provinces of Bulgaria