27.09.2021

HOW MANY WORKERS REPLACE THE NEW RETIREES

Only 67 young people replace 100 people who are retiring. This shows a Report for 2019-2020 on the implementation of the National Strategy for Active Life of the Elderly in Bulgaria, uploaded for public discussion. By comparison, in 2001, 100 people of working age were replaced by 124 young people.

The highest value of the coefficient is in the districts of Sliven - 90, Sofia (capital) - 79 persons, and Varna - 78. The lowest indicator is in the districts of Smolyan - 41, Kardzhali - 48, and Pernik, where 100 persons leaving of working age are replaced by only 50 persons entering working age.

The population of Bulgaria continues to decrease and age, with low birth rates and high mortality rates in our country, the report concludes. The imbalance in the territorial distribution of the population is deepening.

At the end of 2020, the number of people aged 65 and over was 1,504,048, or nearly 22 percent of the total population. Compared to 2019, the share of the population in this age group increased by 0.2 percentage points.

The aging of the population leads to an increase in its average age, which increased from 40.4 years in 2001 to 44 years at the end of 2020. The average age of the population in Bulgaria is among the highest not only in the European Union but also in the world, the document reads.

The aging process is more pronounced among women than among men. The relative share of women over the age of 65 is 25.3%, and of men - 17.9%. This difference is due to the higher mortality rate among men and, as a consequence, to the lower life expectancy among them.

The highest share of people over 65 years of age is in the districts of Vidin and Gabrovo where every third person is in this category. In a total of twenty districts, this share is above the national average. The lowest share of the elderly population is in the districts of Sofia (capital) - 17.7%, and Varna - 19.4%.

Positive trends in 2020 include the reduction of infant mortality, the maintenance of the total fertility rate at a level close to the average for the member states of the European Union, the reduction of the number of divorces, the increase of the mechanical population growth, the improvement of living standards and quality of life of the population, the document states.