Romanians in Bulgaria

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Ethnic map of the Balkans prior to the First Balkan War by Paul Vidal de la Blache.

Ethnic map of Bulgaria according to the census results from 1892 (Blue denotes regions with a Romanian minority)

Image:Romanian settlements in Central Serbia.jpg

Settlements in Serbia and northwestern Bulgaria with a Romanian population prior to the First World War

The Romanian minority in Bulgaria is concentrated in the northwestern part of the country, in Vidin Province, Vratsa Province and Pleven Province. They speak the Oltenian variety of the Romanian language. The Romanians from the Vidin Province are separated into 2 main groups: the "Dunăreni" (who live around the Danube river) and the "Pădureni" (who lived in the higher placed regions with many woods). In southwestern Bulgaria lives also a very small Aromanian population, such as in the village Peshtera.<ref>Aromanians</ref> The territory where the Romanians from Bulgaria live never belonged to Romania and most of them declare themselves "vlasi" (= Vlachs) when asked in Bulgarian (e.g. on the census), though they use the self-designation "rumân" (= Rumanians) in their language. The Romanians in Bulgaria are not recognized as a national minority, but as en ethnic group and they don't enjoy ethnic rights in schools and churches since the Interwar period.<ref>Romanii Din Bulgaria</ref>

1 Census figures
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 in Romanian
- 4.2 in English

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Census figures

Year	Romanian speakers	Counted as Romanians
1881	49,070
1887	75,235
1905	89,847	79,910
1910	96,502	81,272
1920	75,065	66,944
1926	83,746	69,080
1934		16,504
1938		1,511
2001	10,566 Template:Ref	1,088

Template:Note The 2001 census shows 10,566 Vlachs. Most of the Vlachs (Romanians) are Romanian-speakers, but the figure includes some Aromanian-speakers as well.

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