Smolyan Province

Smolyan Province is a province in Southern-central Bulgaria, located in the Rhodope Mountains, neighbouring Greece to the south. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre — the city of Smolyan. The province embraces a territory of. that is divided into 10 municipalities with a total population of 124,795, as of December 2009.

Municipalities

Smolyan Province contains 10 municipalities. The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village, and the population of each as of December 2009.

Municipality	Cyrillic	Pop.	Town/Village	Pop.
Banite	Баните	4,972	Banite	1,047
Borino	Борино	3,618	Borino	2,516
Chepelare	Чепеларе	8,045	Chepelare	5,412
Devin	Девин	13,204	Devin	7,054
Dospat	Доспат	9,526	Dospat	2,604
Madan	Мадан	12,606	Madan	6,007
Nedelino	Неделино	7,577	Nedelino	4,641
Rudozem	Рудозем	9,801	Rudozem	3,583
Smolyan	Смолян	43,186	Smolyan	31,718
Zlatograd	Златоград	12,260	Zlatograd	7,110

Demographics

The Smolyan province had a population of 140,066 according to the 2001 census, of which were male and were female.
As of the end of 2009, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 124,795 of which are inhabitants aged over 60 years.
As of the end of 2023, the population decreased to 92,107.

Ethnic groups

Total population : 121,752
Ethnic groups :
Identified themselves: 95,175 persons:

Bulgarians: 86,847
Turks: 4,696
Others and indefinable: 3,632

A further 26,000 persons in the Province did not declare their ethnic group at the 2011 census.
In the 2001 census, 132,654 people of the population of 140,066 of Smolyan Province identified themselves as belonging to one of the following ethnic groups:

Ethnic group	Population	Percentage
Bulgarians	122,806
Turkish	6,212
Romani	686
Russians	111
Armenians	42
Greeks	13
Ukrainians	27
Jewish	1
Romanians	1
Other	55

Language

In the 2001 census, 135,761 people of the population of 140,066 of Smolyan Province identified one of the following as their mother tongue :
129,181 Bulgarian,
5,782 Turkish, 532 Romani
and 266 other.

Religion

Unlike Kardzhali Province where the majority of the Muslim population is Turkish, the Muslim population of Smolyan Province is made up mostly of Muslim Bulgarians.
The Muslim population is mainly concentrated in the municipalities Banite, Borino, Dospat, Madan and Rudozem. The Orthodox-Christians population live predominantly in the municipality of Smolyan and the municipality of Chepelare. The religious structure of the municipalities of Devin, Nedelino and Zlatograd is mixed with Pomaks as well as Orthodox Christians.
Religious adherence in the province according to 2011 census:

Economy

The economy of the province is based on tourism, mining, timber and machine industries and livestock raising. The main crops of the region are potatoes, rye and barley; but sheep, pigs and cattle are of greater importance for the agriculture. In the eastern parts of the province are located more than 20 lead and zinc mines, which form one of the most extensive ore deposits in the Balkans. The dense coniferous forests are prerequisite for well-developed timber industry in Dospat, Smolyan, Devin. In Smolyan there are big plants producing machine tools and other machinery, while textile industry is mainly developed to the east in Nedelino, Zlatograd, Madan and Rudozem. There is also a synthetic rubber plant in Madan.
Bulgaria's national observatory, Rozhen Observatory, is located near Chepelare. The primary of Media of Bulgaria has a 2-meter mirror, and is the largest observatory in SE Europe.