Varna and Burgas are the chief Black Sea ports, and Ruse is the only major Bulgarian port on the Danube River. Burgas is a young city, growing to most of its size in the late 1800s, and it was a more important port than Varna until the 1950s. Varna, however, attracted the naval academy, has become the naval base, and has acquired most of the shipbuilding industry. Ruse has also grown rapidly. In addition to its river trade, the first bridge across the river between Bulgaria and Romania was built just north of the city.
A number of new towns have been built since World War II, in some cases from the ground up. These include some at industrial complexes, others at resorts. Madan is a new mining center in the Rodopi; Dimitrovgrad is a new industrial town on the Maritsa River; and there are several mountain and seaside resort cities. Zlatni Pyassutsi (Golden Sands), opened in 1956, is one of a group of Black Sea resort cities that, upon opening, could accommodate tens of thousands of holiday vacationers.
In spite of its three most recent wars, comparatively few Bulgarians live outside the country in the areas adjacent to its boundaries. Bulgarian sources estimate the total number of Bulgarians abroad at approximately 1 million. Many of these are in Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia and are, in fact, Macedonians who may or may not prefer to be called Bulgarians. Other Bulgarians are in Greek Thrace, and a few are in Romanian Dobrudzha and in Soviet Bessarabia. A scattering are settled in other Eastern European countries, Australia, and North and South America. There are only a few in the United States.
When The Macedonians and Gypsies in the country--whom Bulgarian official sources include as fully integrated into the Bulgarian population--are not counted separately, Bulgarians constitute about 91 percent of the population. The approximately 700,000 Turks out-number all other non-Bulgarians in the population by a large margin. Small numbers of Greeks, Romanians, Armenians, and Jews make up a total of only about 1 percent (see ch. 4).
In the absence of official statistics, the number of Macedonians and Gypsies are impossible to estimate accurately. It is probable that there are a few more Gypsies than Macedonians and that they total about 5 percent of the population. Pomaks (Muslim Bulgarians), who tend to live separately, have been persecuted on occasion and have represented a social problem. Some authorities have listed them as a separate ethnic group but, with diminishing emphasis on religion, local authorities attempt to make no distinctions between them and the rest of the population.