Bulgaria Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

air pollution from industrial emissions; rivers polluted from raw sewage, heavy metals, detergents; deforestation; forest damage from air pollution and resulting acid rain; soil contamination from heavy metals from metallurgical plants and industrial wastes

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Multi-effect Protocol, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 18.82 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 41.71 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 6.77 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

temperate; cold, damp winters; hot, dry summers

Land use

agricultural land: 46.9% (2018 est.)

arable land: 29.9% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 1.5% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 15.5% (2018 est.)

forest: 36.7% (2018 est.)

other: 16.4% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 76.7% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: -0.28% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 0.22% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0.14% of GDP (2018 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 3.011 million tons (2015 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 572,993 tons (2015 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 19% (2015 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Danube (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania [m]) - 2,888 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 882 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 3.942 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 834.5 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

21.3 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Bulgaria on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Bulgaria 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Bulgaria 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.