I had Romanian friends visiting Bulgaria and they were wondering
Posted by cimonca@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 24 comments
Why is Bulgaria and its villages so empty and abandoned. I was kind of surprised, thinking maybe it's similar in Romania.
Things here are pretty much situated in the bigger cities nowadays and the elderly like to live the rest of their lives in their village homes.
How is the village life in your countries and is it thriving?
BestResponsibility10@reddit
Villages around big cities are ok and will thrive more in coming future but those who are more far away tend to be abandoned because there nothing you can do there, no jobs, no entertainment.
User20242024@reddit
In Serbia, there is life in villages which are near big cities, while does in remote areas or near country borders are almost empty.
Axel0010110@reddit
Romania is 45% rural even today, but there are rural that are just dormitory for people that work in a city. Take my city, Pitesti. Pitesti had Stefanesti, Albota, Bradu and other villages (comune = more villages united). Most of these people actually work in the city.
There are ghost villages in Romania and there are well thriving villages in Romania. Plus, most people that work in big cities want from certain age to go back in rural because you want peace. I want to do that too. A high salary and spend in rent and other bullshit is worse than living in my yard, having my own house and doing 1 hour max till my job. I already do 1 hour comute, so it is the same if i live in a village. My salary might be lower, but my happiness will be maxed. People that experienced both know how good rural area can be.
curseuponyou@reddit
Unless a village is an hour or two away from big cities they tend to slowly die off
Adistaktos34@reddit
In Greece after the 1960s everyone went to the big cities. Now the villages are summer houses and have mainly pensioners and farmers. My mother's village in 1990 had 2000 inhabitants and in 2026 it has 700. I suppose that if something doesn't change it will become deserted. I believe that people will return to the countryside only if there is a war or famine, unfortunately.
TripluStecherSmecher@reddit
Some quieter, some busier, we have plenty of deserted ones too but not as much like you, I don't know why but I noticed too that fact. Even small towns, e.g. Kavarna has empty streets compared to the satellite towns near Constanta...maybe people prefer the peace of home instead of being outside?
SoulEkko@reddit
I think having around 3 times the population contributes more than anything else, while the surface area is about 2-ish times, so density by default is \~30% more. Add to that that Romania's urbanization rate is 55% vs Bulgaria's 74%, which means even emptier villages.
Numbers don't lie, and thus, why village life seems different between the two on a perceptive level.
WayAdmirable150@reddit
Had a road trip around Romania and Bulgaria. Would say the same. Same villages had a lot of people on the streats while some looked empty. Same as everywhere.
Btw, Romania was amazing.
nomebi@reddit
I went to Romania from Czechia and was surprised just how lively all the villages are. Stuff is happening outside and people are talking all the time! Mabye its just the culture idk
yourpervertuncle@reddit
There are semi-deserted villages in Romania, but nothing like in Bulgaria.
In some areas of Bulgaria (for example around Vidin/Belogradcik) you can drive through several villages in a row that seem completely abandoned, nobody lives there anymore.
No-Championship-4632@reddit
Basically the villages are dying unless they are satellite villages to a city, have some larger industry or are in tourist area. Many of those you consider deserted are not so in practice (but almost everyone there works somewhere else so they look deserted most of the daytime). And there are many truly dead ones too, especially in certain regions. Others look lively in the summer, but they are practically dead with close to zero permament population, almost noone stays there in the winter.
WorldlinessRadiant77@reddit
For better or worse Bulgaria is much more urbanised than Romania. Half the population lives in the 16 biggest cities and 80% in the largest 40.
This left the countryside empty besides the suburbs of the said cities.
yourpervertuncle@reddit
Bulgaria does seem more urbanized than Romania, with more small towns. But many of these are deserted ghost towns, from my experience, for example Tetovo or Kubrat near Ruse.
Don't get me wrong, I love Bulgaria, it is an amazing country with warm people and awesome nature, just sharing my experience.
WorldlinessRadiant77@reddit
Don’t worry I don’t see it as a judgement. You are stating a fact.
It’s also not a good thing that the population is this concentrated. In fact it causes a lot of problems in Bulgaria and there probably should be a policy to resettle the countryside (tax exemptions perhaps).
I didn’t mean to imply that the urbanisation is a good thing.
cimonca@reddit (OP)
Oh, please, accept it as it is
WorldlinessRadiant77@reddit
What do you mean?
cimonca@reddit (OP)
What do I mean? We suck. And your low IQ protection of Bulgaria is cringe. Please stop.
No-Championship-4632@reddit
Basically the villages are dying unless they are satellite villages to a city, have some larger industry or are in tourist area. Many of those you consider deserted are not so in practice (but almost everyone there works somewhere else so they look deserted most of the daytime). And there are many truly dead ones too, especially in certain regions. Others look lively in the summer, but they are practically dead with close to zero permament population, almost noone stays there in the winter.
Substantial-Peach-90@reddit
I remember visiting my village(in Mani peninsula, Greece) throughout my life. As a child I remember it was so lively. Main square always full of people, children playing, kids bicycling, people going to the church and grandpas chilling, speaking and drinking coffee. 4 cafeterias were active and full, we had neighbors and the school was operating.
When I go now it’s abandoned, almost everyone from the old ones passed away, only few like my grandpa at age 95 are still alive. Not really any neighbors because the old one passed away and the younger ones left, the 4 cafeterias don’t operate anymore, the school closed down and turned into a firefighting station for the region since there are no children, buildings are degrading dramatically since they are abandoned. Life somehow returns only during holidays but even then it’s still very empty and nothing like it used to be.
In summer you might hear a child playing in the main square or see someone bicycling or see a tourist hiking through the village and looking at the old stone houses.
This is the reality for many villages all around Greece, especially those that are no touristic hotspots.
Tall_Country_5543@reddit
I don't know about Bulgaria but in Serbia and Croatia villages look like a post apocalyptic zombie epidemic. We have basically three cities and everything else is dying. Zagreb proper isn't even a million.
tihomirbz@reddit
Bulgaria is much more urbanized than Romania. 74% vs 52%.
It’s also got less population density. 111k sq km so about 1/2 of Romania, but only about 1/3 of the population.
PerformanceGuilty908@reddit
dude when i drive trough bulgaria a couple years ago, it was full with abandoned looking land. i didn’t even see animals on the streets, nothing
Apatride@reddit
It strongly depends on road infrastructure and traffic. In places where driving in and out of the city isn't too bad (usually smaller cities, Bulgaria tends to have few large cities rather than many small cities), many middle class and upper middle class people move to villages. Of course, it tends to drive local people out of the villages as prices increase but at least the villages don't completely die.
The_ScarRzZ@reddit
it is similar, they live under a rock