Vidin Province (Bulgarian: Област Видин) is the northwesternmost province of Bulgaria. It borders Serbia to the west and Romania to the northeast. Its administrative centre is the city of Vidin on the Danube river. The area is divided into 11 municipalities. As of December 2009, the province has a population of 108,067 inhabitants.[1][2][3]
There are remains of many castles, including Baba Vida, one of the last Bulgarian strongholds during the Ottoman invasion and the Belogradchik fortress.
Municipalities within Vidin Province with their administrative centres
The Vidin Province contains 11 municipalities (singular: община, obshtina - plural: общини, obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town (in bold) or village, and the population of each as of December 2009.
The territory of the province includes the most western parts of the Danubian Plain and Stara Planina, while the Danube forms the border with Romania. The slopes of Stara Planina are covered with dense forests, lush meadows and boasts the majestic rock phenomena, the Belogradchik Rocks. There are around 80 caves situated close to the border with Serbia, the most famous being the Magura Cave, which known with its cave painting from 10,000 BC. There is also a lake in the proximity of the cave.
Demographics
The Belogradchik Rocks
The Vidin province had a population of 130,074 according to a 2001 census, of which 48.4% were male and 51.6% were female.[7]
As of the end of 2009, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 108,067[1] of which 32.6% are inhabitants aged over 60 years.[8]
Vidin is the oldest province in Bulgaria, with 28.9% of its population 65 years or older at the end of 2016. There is a big difference between the percentage elderly living in urban and rural areas: in urban areas 21.1% of the population is 65 years or older while that percentage is 42.8% in rural areas. The percentage of children up to 15 years is 13.5% in urban areas and only 9.8% in rural areas.
The following table represents the change of the population in the province after World War II:
Vidin Province
Year
1946
1956
1965
1975
1985
1992
2001
2005
2007
2009
2011
Population
194,007
188,518
179,429
176,761
166,680
151,636
130,074
117,809
112,604
108,067
101,018
Sources: National Statistical Institute,[1] „Census 2001“,[2] „Census 2011“,[3] „pop-stat.mashke.org“,??
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[12] followed in parentheses by the original name in Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet (which links to the corresponding Bulgarian Wikipedia article).
