Montana Province (Bulgarian: Област Монтана, transliterated: Oblast Montana) is a province in northwestern Bulgaria, bordering Serbia in the southwest and Romania in the north. It spreads its area between the Danube river and the Balkan Mountains. As of February 2011, the province has a population of 148,098 inhabitants,[1] on territory of 3,635.5 km2 (1,403.7 sq mi). It was named after its administrative centre the city of Montana.
Municipalities
Municipalities in Montana province
The Montana province (Област, oblast) contains 11 municipalities (singular: община, obshtina - plural: Общини, obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and in Cyrillic, the main town (in bold) or village, and the population as of 2011.
The Montana province had a population of 148,098 according to a 2011 census, of which 49.2% were male and 50.8% were female.[7]
As of the end of 2009, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 155,899[2] of which 30.5% are inhabitants aged over 60 years.[8]
The following table represents the change of the population in the province after World War II:
Montana Province
Year
1946
1956
1965
1975
1985
1992
2001
2005
2007
2009
2011
Population
242,073
243,431
241,200
235,800
222,632
208,128
182,258
166,775
161,161
155,899
148,098
Sources: National Statistical Institute,[2][9][10][11][12] „Census 2001“,[13] „Census 2011“,[1] „pop-stat.mashke.org“,[4]
In the 2001 census, 181,175 people of the population of 182,258 of Montana Province identified themselves as belonging to one of the following ethnic groups (with percentage of total population):[16]
In the 2001 census, 181,208 people of the population of 182,258 of Montana Province identified one of the following as their mother tongue (with percentage of total population):
160,494 Bulgarian (88.1%),
19,849 Romani (10.9%),
220 Turkish (0.1%),
and 645 other (0.4%).[17]
The place names in bold have the status of town (in Bulgarian: град, transliterated as grad). Other localities have the status of village (in Bulgarian: село, transliterated as selo). The names of localities are transliterated in Latin alphabet,[19][20] followed in parentheses by the original name in Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet which links to the corresponding Bulgarian Wikipedia article).
Berkovitsa (Берковица)
The Berkovitsa municipality has one town (in bold) and 19 villages:
