Fewer than 5.0 pct of Bulgarians declare themselves Roma
Fewer than five per cent of Bulgaria’s 7.36 million inhabitants declared themselves as Roma, final census data showed Thursday, while experts estimate the proportion is actually twice as high.
"Some 325,343 people or 4.9 per cent of the population declared they belonged to the Roma ethnic group, or 0.2 percentage point more than in the previous census in 2001," the national statistical institute said in a statement.
In the case of the ethnic Turks, their number totalled 588,318, equivalent to 8.8 per cent of the overall population, a decline of 0.6 percentage point from 10 years ago.
Some 5,664,624 people, or 84.8 per cent of the population, described themselves as Bulgarian.
The census was carried out in February and the question about ethnicity was optional, with 9.0 per cent of people choosing not to answer it.
