Ruse Province

Ruse Province (Bulgarian: Област Русе, romanized: Oblast Ruse), or Rusenska Oblast (Bulgarian: Русенска област, former name Ruse okrug) is a province in northern Bulgaria, named after its main city, Ruse, neighbouring Romania via the Danube. It is divided into eight municipalities with a total population, as of February 2011, of 235,252 inhabitants.^[2][3][4]

Ruse Province Област Русе
Province
View of Cherven Fortress
Flag
Location of Ruse Province in Bulgaria
Country	Bulgaria
Capital	Ruse
Municipalities	8
Government
• Governor	Stefko Burdzhiev
Area [1]
• Total	2,803.4 km2 (1,082.4 sq mi)
Population  (December 2022)[2]
• Total	189,623
• Density	68/km2 (180/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
License plate	P
Website	www.ruse.bg

The Danube Bridge, one of only two bridges opened over the Danube, is located in the province. One of the versions of a folk song, inspired by the Ruse blood wedding, can be heard in the province.

Municipalities

Ruse

•

Slivo Pole

•

Borovo

•

Byala

•

Vetovo

•

Dve Mogili

•

Ivanovo

•

Tsenovo

Municipalities within Ruse Province with their administrative centres

The Ruse province (област, oblast) contains eight municipalities (община, obshtina; plural общини, obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town (in bold) or village, and the population of each as of December 2009.

Municipality	Cyrillic	Pop.[2][3][4]	Town/Village	Pop.[5][3][6]
Borovo	Борово	6,699	Borovo	2,330
Byala	Бяла	14,962	Byala	9,015
Vetovo	Ветово	13,738	Vetovo	4,777
Dve Mogili	Две могили	10,341	Dve Mogili	4,342
Ivanovo	Иваново	10,339	Ivanovo	880
Ruse	Русе	175,210	Ruse	156,509
Slivo Pole	Сливо поле	11,635	Slivo Pole	3,169
Tsenovo	Ценово	6,220	Tsenovo	1,673

Demographics

Ruse Freedom Monument

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1946	215,361	—
1956	236,117	+9.6%
1965	273,226	+15.7%
1975	305,722	+11.9%
1985	315,762	+3.3%
1992	290,800	−7.9%
2001	268,074	−7.8%
2011	235,252	−12.2%
2021	193,483	−17.8%
Source: pop-stat.mashke.org[7]

The Ruse province had a population of 266,213 (266,157 also given) according to a 2001 census, of which 48.7% were male and 51.3% were female.^[8]

As of the end of 2009, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 249,144^[2] of which 25.8% are inhabitants aged over 60 years.^[9]

Ethnic groups

Ethnic groups in Rousse Province (2011 census)
Ethnic group			Percentage
Bulgarians			81.4%
Turks			13.2%
Romani			4.0%
others and indefinable			1.4%

Total population (2011 census): 235 252^[10]

Ethnic groups (2011 census):^[11] Identified themselves: 216,612 persons:

• Bulgarians: 176,413 (81,44%)
• Turks: 28,658 (13,23%)
• Romani: 8,615 (3,98%)
• Others and indefinable: 2,926 (1,35%)

Ethnic groups according to the 2001 census, when 266,157 people of the population of 266,213 of Rousse Province identified themselves (with percentage of total population):^[12]

• Bulgarians: 213,408
• Turks: 37,050
• Romani: 9,703

Religion

Religions in Rousse Province (2001 census)
Religious group			Percentage
Orthodox Christian			80.9%
Muslim			15.8%
Roman Catholic Christian			0.2%
Protestant Christian			0.2%
others and indefinable			2.9%

Religious adherence in the province according to 2001 census:^[13]

Census 2001
religious adherence	population	%
Orthodox Christians	215,434	80.94%
Muslims	41,997	15.78%
Roman Catholics	567	0.21%
Protestants	482	0.18%
Other	1,596	0.60%
Religion not mentioned	6,081	2.29%
total	266,157	100%

See also

• Provinces of Bulgaria
• List of villages in Rousse Province