Plovdiv Province (Bulgarian:Област Пловдив:Oblast Plovdiv, former namePlovdiv okrug) is aprovince in central southernBulgaria. It comprises 18 municipalities (общини,obshtini, sing. общинa,obshtina) on a territory of 5,972.9 km2 (2,306.1 sq mi)[1] with a population, as of February 2011, of 683,027 inhabitants.[2][3][4] The province is named after its administrative and industrial centre — the city ofPlovdiv.
Plovdiv Province (Област,oblast) contains 18 municipalities[5] (singular: община,obshtina, plural: Общини,obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English andCyrillic, the main town or village (towns are shown in bold), and the population of each as of 31st December 2024.
Plovdiv Province had apopulation of 715,904 (715,816 also given) according to a 2001census, of which48.4% weremale and51.6% werefemale.[11]
As of the end of 2009, the population, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 701,684[2] of which24.1% are over 60 years of age.[12]
A further 60,000 persons in Plovdiv Province did not declare their ethnic group at the 2011 census.
Ethnic groups according to the 2001 census, when 715 816 people of the population of 715,904 of Plovdiv Province identified themselves (with percentage of total population):[15]
The economy of the province is of great importance. The agricultural production is intensive and efficient with high levels of irrigation. The major crops are fruit (apples, plums, pears, cherries), grapes, melons and watermelons, vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cabbage, potatoes), wheat, rice, barley and others. Industry is very well developed: ferrous metallurgy nearPlovdiv; thriving electronics industry inPlovdiv,Saedinenie,Voivodinovo,Radinovo and other villages in the area; agricultural machinery (tractors) inKarlovo; weapon and military plants inSopot,Karlovo,Plovdiv; chemical industry inPlovdiv,Asenovgrad; food industry is developed almost everywhere, most notably inPlovdiv andAsenovgrad (wines). Tourism is a growing industry with the rich cultural heritage of the province and the numerousmineral springs which are of international importance.[citation needed]
