Bulgarians in Romania

Bulgarians In Romania

Bulgarians (Romanian: bulgari) are a recognized minority in Romania (Bulgarian: Румъния, Rumaniya), numbering 8,025 according to the 2002 Romanian census, down from 9,851 in 1992. Despite their low census number today, Bulgarians from different confessional and regional backgrounds have had ethnic communities in various regions of Romania, and during the Middle Ages Bulgarian culture has exerted considerable influence on its northern neighbour . According to one estimate, Romanian citizens of Bulgarian origin number around 250,000.

Historically, Bulgarian communities in modern Romania have existed in Wallachia (Bulgarian: Влашко, transliterated: Vlashko), Northern Dobruja (Bulgarian: Северна Добруджа, translit. Severna Dobrudzha) and Transylvania (Bulgarian: Седмиградско, translit. Sedmigradsko). Currently, however, the Bulgarian community in present-day Romania that has retained most efficiently its numbers, social integrity and strong ethnic identity is that of the Banat Bulgarians, a Roman Catholic minority in the Banat who account for the bulk of the Bulgarian-identifying population of Romania. In Wallachia, they are only few Bulgarians who preserved their national identity, though the numbers of those who speak Bulgarian and affirm to have Bulgarian ancestors is still high.

The Torlak-speaking Roman Catholic Krashovani are also sometimes regarded to be of Bulgarian origin, but to have lost their Bulgarian identity in favour of the Croatian. In Austria-Hungary, they were regarded as Bulgarians.

The population of undisputed Bulgarian origin aside, Bulgarian researchers also claim that the Hungarian minority of the Székely in central Romania is of Magyarized Bulgar (Proto-Bulgarian) origin and the Şchei of Transylvania were Romanianized Bulgarians (a view also supported by Lyubomir Miletich and accepted by Romanian writers).