According to the demographic prognosis of the National Statistics Institute (NSI), by 2020 the population of Bulgaria will have gone down to around 6.953 million people, and by 2030 to 6.436 million.

By 2040 there will be 5.971 million Bulgarians and by 2060 their number will have decreased to 5.138 million.

The NSI report states that judging by the development of demographic processes over the past 15 years, the population will continue to decrease in spite of the improvement of some factors such as the higher birth rate.

The report also gives the following prognosis about gender division: in 2020 there will be 3.363 mln men and 3.590 mln women, in 2030 men will be 3.120 mln and women will number 3.316 mln, in 2040 there will be 2.906 mln men and 3.65 mln women, and by 2060 men will be 2.515 mln and women 2.623 mln.

Another tendency expected to continue is the aging of the population, which is attributed to many factors such as longer life expectancy and immigration among young Bulgarians.

Experts forecast that the number of people below working age will go up to 15% by 2020 and then it will start to go down, reaching 13.2% by 2060.

In 2010 some 63% of the population will be at working age, but the number will go down to 50% by 2060. The number of people at or above retirement age is expected to grow from approximately 23% in 2010 to some 37% by 2060.