Shumen Province

Shumen Province Област Шумен
—  Province  —
Location of Shumen Province in Bulgaria
Country	Bulgaria
Capital	Shumen
Municipalities	10
Government
• Governor	Dimitar Alexandrov (2009-)
Area
• Total	3,389.7 km2 (1,308.8 sq mi)
Population (February 2011)
• Total	180,452
• Density	53.24/km2 (137.9/sq mi)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
License plate	H
Website	oblastshumen.icon.bg

Shumen Province (Bulgarian: Област Шумен, transliterated Oblast Shumen, former name Shumen okrug) is a province in northeastern Bulgaria named after its main city Shumen. It is divided into 10 municipalities with a total population, as of December 2009, of 194,090 inhabitants.

Shumen

•

Kaspichan

•

Novi Pazar

•

Veliki Preslav

•

Smyadovo

•

Varbitsa

•

Kaolinovo

•

Hitrino

•

Venets

•

Nikola Kozlevo

Municipalities within Shumen Province with their administrative centres

The Main City

The city of Shumen is famous in the region for the Monument to 1300 Years of Bulgaria. The monument is in the cubist style and is 1300 steps (each step representing a year) above the center of the town. Other places of note are the Shumen fortress, Tombul Mosque,and Shumen Plato National park. The center of the town has a historical museum, large library, and large theater. The municipality building, also in the center, has a concert hall that features regular symphony performances. Shumen is also the location of the Shumensko Brewery, a popular beer in Bulgaria. The area surrounding Shumen plays a significant part in Bulgarian History with the first and second capitols of historical Bulgaria within thirty kilometers from the city.

Municipalities

The Shumen Province contains 10 municipalities (singular: oбщина, obshtina - plural: oбщини, 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.	Town/Village	Pop. (December 2009)
Venets	Венец	6,905	Venets	725
Varbitsa	Върбица	10,492	Varbitsa	3,585
Hitrino	Хитрино	6,423	Hitrino	715
Kaolinovo	Каолиново	12,251	Kaolinovo	1,538
Kaspichan	Каспичан	8,871	Kaspichan	3,260
Nikola Kozlevo	Никола Козлево	6,381	Nikola Kozlevo	789
Novi Pazar	Нови пазар	18,476	Novi Pazar	12,673
Veliki Preslav	Велики Преслав	15,292	Veliki Preslav	8,951
Smyadovo	Смядово	7,402	Smyadovo	4,036
Shumen	Шумен	101,597	Shumen	86,824

Demography

The Shumen province had a population of 204,395 (204,378 also given) according to a 2001 census, of which 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female. As of the end of 2009, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 194,090 of which 22.7% are inhabitants aged over 60 years.

The following table represents the change of the population in the province after World War II:

Shumen Province
Year	1946	1956	1965	1975	1985	1992	2001	2005	2007	2009	2011
Population	222,141	224,705	243,416	253,437	254,884	220,320	204,395	198,106	196,559	194,090	180,452
Sources: National Statistical Institute, „Census 2001“, „Census 2011“, „pop-stat.mashke.org“,??

Religion

Religious adherence in the province according to 2001 census:

Census 2001
religious adherence	population	%
Orthodox Christians	120,787	59.10%
Muslims	72,544	35.50%
Roman Catholics	386	0.19%
Protestants	1,472	0.72%
Other	821	0.40%
Religion not mentioned	8,368	4.09%
total	204,378	100%

Transportation

Shumen lies on the main route between Varna and Sofia and is served by numerous trains and buses serving the city. The city is also very well connected with Istanbul which serves the large Turkish community in the region.

See also

• Provinces of Bulgaria
• List of villages in Shumen Province