Blagoevgrad District

YAKORUDA BLAGOEVGRAD

RAZLOG BELITZA > Population (2014) 316,843 SIMITLI > Area (sq. km) 6,449.5 KRESNA

Satovcha > Number of settlements 281 GOTSE Strumyani DELCHEV > Share of urban population (%) 59.6 PETRICH Overview

he indicators for social inclusion and living con- tio between their number and the population number Tditions in Blagoevgrad District are relatively fa- has deteriorated over the past year. The environment vourable, but incomes remain low, and investment is in a good state, although the district lags behind activity increases slowly. The population’s economic in provision of waste water treatment plants to the activity is high, but the employment rate has con- population. Blagoevgrad remains one of the leading tinued to drop, and the unemployment rate has in- university centres in , but the share of gradu- creased since 2009. Blagoevgrad District offers one of ates is relatively low, meaning that the district fails to the most favourable preconditions for doing business keep young graduates. It is one of the districts with the in terms of the level of local taxes and fees, but ad- highest share of pending criminal cases in the District ministrative services are not satisfactory. Court despite the low actual workload of judges. The The district’s social development is good. Access to district demography is still favourable but deteriorates key health professionals is relatively easy, but the ra- quickly.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Weak Unsatisfactory Average Good Very good Weak Unsatisfactory Average Good Very good

Income and Living Conditions Demography

Labor Market Education

Investment Healthcare

Infrastructure Security and Justice

Taxes and Fees Environment

Administration Culture

Blagoevgrad District 21 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Income and Living Conditions Infrastructure Blagoevgrad constitutes one of the districts with the Due to the predominating alpine topography, Blago- most favourable indicators in social inclusion and liv- evgrad District has the lowest road network density in ing conditions. The relative share of the poor population Bulgaria – just 10.3 km of roads per 100 sq. km of terri- was 15.3% in 2012, the country average being 21.0%, tory. The railway network density is low as well – 2.5 km while 31.4% lived in material deprivation compared to per 100 sq. km. The share of roads in good condition de- 43.0% in the country as a whole. In 2012, the share of the teriorated for the third year in a row and it was 49.1% in population living in households with low work intensity 2014 compared to 56.6% in 2011. However, these levels reached 4.3% but it remained over two times lower than are higher than the country average of 40.5%. The grad- the nationwide figure. In 2012, GDP per capita was 7,398 ual commissioning of the incomplete sections of the BGN, the country average being 10,958 BGN. In 2014, Struma Highway will enhance the infrastructural profile the annual average income per household member in- of the district. creased to 4,181 BGN compared to 4,132 BGN in 2013; it 62% of households have access to the Internet; this is now amounts to 87% of the country average. Salaries re- the fifth highest share in Bulgaria. The relative share of mained among the lowest in Bulgaria, but relatively high people who had used the Internet in 2014 was close to incomes from self-employment compensate them. the nationwide average of 59%.

Labour Market The labour market state in Blagoevgrad District has contin- Taxes and Fees ued to deteriorate; only the good pre-crisis indicators allow the district to retain its good assessment in this category. Blagoevgrad District offers some of the most favourable preconditions for doing business in terms of the level of Blagoevgrad has traditionally been one of the districts with local taxes and fees. Most of them are lower than Bul- the highest economic activity. In 2014, higher levels were garia’s average ones, and there have been few changes noted solely in Sofia (capital city), Smolyan and Shumen. since 2012. Simultaneously, the unemployment rate has increased for six years in a row to reach 14.1% in 2014, while the employ- Only the annual waste collection charge for properties ment rate reported one of the lowest levels since 2004 – of legal entities is higher compared to the country’s av- 50.6%. erage. This charge is the highest in the municipalities of Petrich, Simitli and Strumyani. Simultaneously, this There are 67 people aged 15–19 per every 100 people aged has been the only local charge to go down in the past 60–64. Thus, the demographic replacement rate (67.1%) in several years – in Sandanski (from 7.70 to 5.03 ‰) and the district is more favourable than it is nationwide, which Strumyani (from 14.00 to 11.00 ‰). is 61.9%. Nonetheless, Blagoevgrad, Kardzhali and Smolyan are the districts with the fastest deteriorating ratios. Exclusive of the annual license tax for retailers, the level of local taxes and fees remains low in the district’s centre – the municipality of Blagoevgrad. Investment Investment has gradually grown more active in the district, though still far below 2007–2008 levels. FDI inflow dropped Administration in the district in 2010 and 2011 but it recovered in the fol- lowing two years, when a total of approximately 100 m eu- The municipalities of Bansko and Blagoevgrad rank ros were attracted. Nevertheless, their accrued level has re- highest – 69.4 and 64.0, out of the maximum 88.4 points mained three times lower than Bulgaria’s average of 3,230 – in the Active Transparency Rating of local government euros per capita. FTA expenditure of enterprises reached its bodies by the AIP Foundation. (12.2) and Hadzhi- 2009 level but is still far below its pre-crisis values. dimovo (16.1) rank lowest. As of 31 January 2015, municipalities managed to absorb Most of the municipalities in the district provide one- 157.6 m BGN as beneficiaries under EU operational pro- stop shop services, but ensuing analyses and checks are grammes. This averaged 497.4 BGN per capita in the dis- relatively rarely applied. E-services are best developed trict, 564.9 BGN being Bulgaria’s average. The municipalities in the Bansko municipality. A large number of the other of Bansko and Gotse Delchev have shown the fastest rate municipalities offer online basic information only, with- of drawdown (2,474.9 BGN per capita, and 812.4 BGN per out any possibilities for concluding transactions with in- capita respectively), while the municipalities of Hadzhidi- dividuals and businesses. movo and Satovcha feature the slowest rate of utilisation In 2014, the cadastral map covered 12.9% of the district’s (95.6 BGN per capita, 113.6 BGN per capita respectively). territory compared to 18.1% for Bulgaria.

22 Regional Profiles 2015 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Demography Population age structure in Blagoevgrad District’s is persons reached 86.3% in 2014, which neared Bulgaria’s more favourable than it is in most other districts; the average of 87.1%. prominent presence of universities in the district contrib- utes for this age structure. Till 2013 Blagoevgrad and So- fia were the only districts where there were at least four Security and Justice persons of working age per individual aged 65+. In 2014 the age dependency ratio (the ratio of people aged 65+ The crime rate has been relatively limited in the district toward people aged 15–64) was 25.6% in Blagoevgrad since 2001. The number of registered crimes against District and remained one of the lowest in Bulgaria. persons and property in relation to the local population has been smaller than Bulgaria’s average. The years 2009 The rate of natural increase has remained negative since and 2010 – when the crimes against individuals, in rela- 2001 and the ratio between the death rate and the birth- tion to the local population, were higher than the aver- rate was most unfavourable in 2014. age figures – are an exception. Although barely 60% of the population lives in towns Despite the relatively low actual workload of penal judg- and cities (Bulgaria’s average being 73.1%), the popula- es in the Blagoevgrad District Court (7.3 cases per judge tion density relative to the urbanised territories is the per month, the country average being 8.3), this was the third highest in the country following Plovdiv and Sofia district with the highest share of pending criminal cases (capital city). in 2013: 13.5% compared to the nationwide average of 8.5%. The lack of sufficient efficiency of the judicial sys- tem is also visible from the fact that 80% of the criminal Education cases are completed within three months, the country School education in Blagoevgrad District features a low average being 88.4%. relative share of repeaters (0.9% compared to the na- tional average of 1.4%) and dropouts from primary and secondary schools (1.6%), and also a high net enrolment Environment rate. School-leavers achieved a slightly higher average The district’s environment is one of the cleanest in Bul- grade than the country average at state matriculation garia. Relatively lower than 16.6 t/sq. km levels of carbon exams throughout the period from 2012 to 2015. dioxide emissions were only observed in four districts: Blagoevgrad ranks among the leading university centres Dobrich, Kardzhali, Montana and Smolyan; the country in Bulgaria. There were 13,200 students in the district in average was 293.9 t/sq. km in 2013). 2014. Nevertheless, the low relative share of the popu- Although the share of the population living in settle- lation aged 25–64 with tertiary education (19.6% com- ments with public sewerage systems is high (77%), the pared to 27.0% for Bulgaria in 2014) demonstrates that population connectivity with waste water treatment most students who have studied in the district, have not plants is still low. Waste water treatment plants served stayed there. 26.5% of the households connected to sewage in 2013, compared to 56.4% for Bulgaria. The modernisation of Blagoevgrad’s waste water treatment plant near the Strumsko Neighbourhood was completed in the sum- Healthcare mer of 2015. The higher ranking of Blagoevgrad District in the field of healthcare is due to the improved access to health pro- fessionals in 2014. The number of general practitioners, Culture cardiologists and internists has increased. Nonetheless, Blagoevgrad District reported visits to cinemas, thea- the district still needs 54 cardiologists – they were 27 in tres, museums and libraries about half of the national 2014 – in order to reach the country’s average of 5,800 averages. In comparison with a clear trend of increase people per cardiologist. in the number of visits to cinemas and theatres nation- The ratio of the number of beds in multi-profile hospitals wide, Blagoevgrad District reported a drop in both indi- to the local population has also improved (3.2 beds per cators. In 2014, visits to theatres went down from 42,000 1,000 people in 2014), though it still remains the sixth to 39,000, while cinema visits dropped from 103,000 to poorest in the country. The improvement was due to the 97,000. An increase was noted in visits to museums and addition of more than 100 hospital beds in multi-profile libraries in 2014, but the district still lags considerably hospitals in 2013 and 2014. The share of health-insured behind the country average levels.

Blagoevgrad District 23 Key Indicators for the District of Blagoevgrad

Economic Development 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

GDP per capita (BGN, current prices) 6,276 5,920 7,168 7,398 n.a. n.a.

Average annual income per household member (BGN) 3,107 3,077 3,225 3,823 4,132 4,181

Average annual gross salary (BGN) 5,423 5,683 5,990 6,271 6,566 n.a.

Relative share of people living below the district’s poverty line (%) 10.2 14.4 12.4 15.3 n.a. n.a.

Annual average economic activity rate of the population 15+ (%) 57.3 56.9 57.8 59.3 59.4 58.9

Annual average employment rate of the population 15+ (%) 55.4 53.6 52.9 53.1 51.4 50.6

Annual average unemployment rate (%) 3.4 5.8 8.4 10.4 13.5 14.1

Number of non-financial companies per 1,000 people 49 50 50 53 55 n.a.

Expenditure on the acquisition of fixed tangible assets per capita (BGN) 1,319 1,049 1,228 1,105 1,335 n.a.

Cumulative FDI to non-financial enterprises per capita (EUR) 770 771 798 957 1,116 n.a.

Relative share of households with Internet access (%) 20.8 24.3 42.3 54.9 60.5 61.9

Share of roads in good condition (%) n.a. 39.0 56.6 55.0 51.9 49.1

Share of territory included in cadastral maps (%) 9.2 10.4 11.3 11.3 12.8 12.9

Social Development 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Rate of natural increase (‰) –0.4 –1.8 –2.1 –2.6 –2.7 –3.6

Net migration rate (‰) –2.3 –4.4 –3.2 –4.8 –3.7 –4.5

Relative share of the population aged 25–64 with tertiary education (%) 15.3 15.9 16.6 17.7 18.0 19.6

Average grades at state matriculation exams 4.3 4.2 4.5 4.2 4.3 4.4

Percent of failed students at state matriculation exams 5.0 4.4 3.5 5.4 3.8 2.7

Health insured persons as share of the population (%) 89.0 86.4 86.6 86.1 84.9 86.3

Cases of hospitalization in general hospitals 133.4 126.6 127.1 159.7 168.6 143.5

Crimes against the property per 10,000 people 80.1 83.4 80.8 72.2 72.4 60.5

Share of pending criminal cases (%) 19.8 17.3 1.5 11.9 13.5 n.a.

Expenditure on environmental protection per capita (BGN) 104.1 86.5 70.0 95.8 178.3 n.a.

Share of the population living in settlements with public 25.6 25.8 26.3 26.3 26.5 n.a. sewerage systems, connected to WTTP (%)

Number of visits to cinemas per 1,000 people 220.7 266.5 285.0 307.9 322.7 307.5

Number of visits to theatres per 1,000 people 80.7 110.1 112.7 104.4 131.3 124.4

24 Regional Profiles 2015