What you need to know, and translation help
Written by Bozhidar Ivanov, edited by Scott Green, photo available under Creative Commons Licence
Bulgaria began its 2021 census on 7 September, and foreigners living in Bulgaria will also need to fill out the census. It will be composed of two parts – an online survey and a live visit. During the online phase, people will need to register and complete the census online at Census2021.bg before the deadline of 30 September 2021.
To complete the online census, you will need to register at the e-census2021.bg website with your email and personal identification document number. After that, you will be able to complete the questionnaire. Important: the website is only available in Bulgarian, so using translation software like Google Translate will be necessary for foreigners. We have included a rough translation for your convenience here.
One registration counts for one property and all the people living in it. So if you live with your partner and/or other family members, you only need to fill the census once.
The questionnaire is separated into four sections:
1. Address– here you need to fill in your city, and address
2. Property – this section contains questions about the type of building you live in – whether it is a house, a flat, etc. It will require information about the property, such as its size, the number of rooms, whether it has heating, internet, water supply, and more. You need to fill this even if you only rent the property.
3. Household – in this section you will need to say how many people live on the property, and fill a section for each of them. The questions will be related to personal information like nationality, occupation, education level, and more.
4. Temporary inhabitants – this will only need to be filled if you’ve declared that there are people living temporarily at the address.
After you have completed the questionnaire, you will be given a unique code, which you need to keep (it will also be emailed to you).
After the online part is finished, a surveyor will visit your address. To prove their identity, they will present their badge from the National Statistical Institute, containing their name and photo. They will also be wearing a blue face mask with „Преброяване 2021“ (Census 2021) written on it. You have to either give them the unique code you got after completing the online questionnaire or complete a paper form.
An example of the form can be found here.
More information about the census can be found at the National Statistical Institute’s website (also available in English). You can find a video instruction (in Bulgarian) here. A hotline for help with completing the census is available at (02) 9078 430. If you don’t fill out an online form and miss the visit from the surveyor, you will be liable to get a 160 BGN fine.
Again, the deadline for completing the online questionnaire is Thursday, 30 September. Happy counting!
