Background : Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Romania and Turkey.

Capital : Sofia

Climate : temperate; cold, damp winters; hot, dry summers

Terrain : mostly mountains with lowlands in north and southeast

Natural Resources : bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, coal, timber, arable land

Population : 7,450,349 (July 2005 est.)

Languages : Bulgarian 84.5%, Turkish 9.6%, Roma 4.1%, other and unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)

Industries : electricity, gas and water; food, beverages and tobacco; machinery and equipment, base metals, chemical products, coke, refined petroleum, nuclear fuel

Government type : parliamentary democracy

A Brief History

The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all of Bulgaria became independent in 1908. Having fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere of influence and became a Peoples Republic in 1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its first multiparty election since World War II and began the contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption, and crime. Today, reforms and democratisation have enabled Bulgaria to join the EU in January 2007. The country joined NATO in 2004. Winter Olympics of 2014 planned.