Geography Quiz Arcade

Bulgaria 🇧🇬

Bulgaria is a country in Europe with a population of 6,781,953. Its capital is Sofia. The official currency is BGN, and the main languages are Bulgarian.

Quick facts

  • Capital: Sofia
  • Continent: Europe
  • Population: 6,781,953
  • Area: 110,879 km²
  • Density: 61.2 people per km²
  • Currency: BGN
  • Languages: Bulgarian
  • ISO code: BG

Where Bulgaria sits

Bulgaria 🇧🇬 is one of 46 countries in Europe, with its capital at Sofia. It covers 110,879 square kilometres — 103rd in the world — and is home to about 6,781,953 people, 107th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, France and Italy. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Bulgaria compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Bulgaria sits closest to Paraguay and Libya. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Liberia and Cuba.

At 61.2 people per square kilometre it is close to the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

Bulgarian is listed as official in Bulgaria alone. The BGN is used by Bulgaria and no one else.

To see Bulgaria next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Bulgaria

Sofia lies in the Sofia Valley at the foot of Vitosha mountain; in Roman times the city was called Serdica. For the flag, read it from top to bottom like a winter landscape: white snow, green fields, red earth.

The flag of Bulgaria: white, green and red

🇧🇬 The flag is three equal horizontal stripes of white, green and red. White stands for peace, love and freedom, green for the country's farming wealth, and red for the struggle for independence and military courage. The flag was first adopted in 1879.

Region and neighbours

Bulgaria is a country in Southeastern Europe, on the eastern side of the Balkans, south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. It shares land borders with 5 countries: Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.

Three facts about Bulgaria

  1. Musala, 2,925 m high, is the highest point in both Bulgaria and the Balkans.
  2. The Varna culture made the oldest gold jewellery in the world, more than 6,000 years old.
  3. The First Bulgarian Empire developed the Cyrillic script, which is still used to write Bulgarian today.

Sources: Wikipedia: Bulgaria, Wikipedia: Flag of Bulgaria, Wikipedia: Sofia, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Bulgaria

Quizzes that include Bulgaria

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Bulgaria those are:

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Read more about Bulgaria

Nearby countries

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Bulgaria flag?

The flag of Bulgaria is three equal horizontal stripes of white, green and red. White stands for peace, love and freedom, green for the country's farming wealth, and red for the struggle for independence and military courage. The flag was first adopted in 1879.

Which countries border Bulgaria?

Bulgaria shares land borders with Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.

How can I remember the capital of Bulgaria?

Sofia lies in the Sofia Valley at the foot of Vitosha mountain; in Roman times the city was called Serdica. For the flag, read it from top to bottom like a winter landscape: white snow, green fields, red earth.