Roma in Bulgaria

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Pan-handling Roma family in front of the Russian Church in Sofia

Roma people constitute the second largest minority and third largest ethnic group (after Bulgarians and Turks) in Bulgaria. According to the 2001 census, there were 370,908 Roma in Bulgaria, equivalent to 4.7% of the country's total population.^[1]

Roma are commonly referred to as tsigani (цигани, pronounced /'ʦiɡəni/), an exonym that some Roma resent, but others embrace. The form of the endonym Roma in Bulgarian is romi (роми).

Bulgaria participates in the Decade of Roma Inclusion, an initiative of European countries to better integrate Roma in the society. The rights of the Roma people in the country are also represented by various political parties and cultural organizations, most notably the Civil Union "Roma".

Noted Bulgarian Roma include musicians Azis, Sofi Marinova and Ivo Papazov, surgeon Aleksandar Chirkov, politician Toma Tomov and footballer Marian Ognyanov.

1 Subgroups
2 Demographics
3 References
- 3.1 General references
- 3.2 Footnotes
4 External links

[edit] Subgroups

Roma in Bulgaria are not a unified community in terms of culture and lifestyle. The most widespread subgroup of the Roma in the country are the yerlii or the 'local Roma', which are in turn divided into Bulgarian Gypgies (daskane roma) and Turkish Gypsies (horahane roma). The former are mostly Eastern Orthodox and to a smaller extent Protestant, while the latter are Muslim.

Other Roma subgroups include the conservative wandering Kalderash (sometimes referred to by the exonym Serbian Gypsies) that are Eastern Orthodox and the Rudari (or Ludari) who speak a dialect of Romanian and are known as Vlach Gypsies or Romanian Gypsies. They are further subdivided into three groups by their traditional craft: the Ursari or Mechkari ('bear trainers'), the Lingurari or Kopanari ('carpenters', primarily associated with wooden bowls) and the Lautari ('musicians').

Additionally, the offsprings of a Bulgarian and a Roma are referred to as dzhorevtsi (джоревци) or zhorevtsi (жоревци).^[2]

[edit] Demographics

Between the 2001 census and the one 1992 the number of Roma in the country has increased by 57,512, or 18.4%. Constituting 4.7% of the total population in 2001, the Roma were only 2.8% in 1910 and 2.0% in 1920.

The Roma are present in all provinces of Bulgaria, but they represent the highest portion of the population in Montana Province (12.5%) and Sliven Province (12.3%), with their share being smallest in Smolyan Province, where they are only 686, a negligible part of the population.

There is no city, town or village in the country where Roma are the only ethnic group. The number of places where Roma dominate (i.e. constitute more than 50% of the population) has risen from the 1992 to the 2001 census.

Province	Roma	Total population
Blagoevgrad Province	12,405	341,173
Burgas Province	19,439	423,547
Dobrich Province	18,649	215,217
Gabrovo Province	1,611	144,125
Haskovo Province	17,089	277,478
Kardzhali Province	1,264	164,019
Kyustendil Province	8,294	162,534
Lovech Province	6,316	169,951
Montana Province	22,784	182,258
Pazardzhik Province	23,970	310,723
Pernik Province	3,035	149,832
Pleven Province	9,777	311,985
Plovdiv Province	30,196	715,816
Razgrad Province	8,733	152,417
Ruse Province	9,703	266,157
Shumen Province	16,457	204,378
Silistra Province	6,478	142,000
Sliven Province	26,777	218,474
Smolyan Province	686	140,066
Sofia	17,885	1,170,842
Sofia Province	16,748	273,240
Stara Zagora Province	16,748	370,615
Targovishte Province	9,868	137,689
Varna Province	15,462	462,013
Veliko Tarnovo Province	6,064	293,172
Vidin Province	9,786	130,074
Vratsa Province	14,899	243,036
Yambol Province	9,729	156,070
Total	370,908	7,928,901