This page details the ethnic mix of the population of Bulgaria. As per the 2001 census, the Bulgarian population consisted of 7,928,901 people.
Table of ethnic mix of Bulgarian population, taken from the 2001 Census:
The table shows that just three ethnic groups form 98% of the entire population of the country of Bulgaria. These groups being the native Bulgarians, the Turkish and Romani.
The Bulgarian part of the population has had various genetic input over the centuries but genetically is predominantly a Mediterranean people. There are both Nordic and East Baltic genetic influences, Bulgarians tend to relate genetically to neighbouring countries such as Macedonia, Serbia and Romania.
The Turkish population as the name suggests originally came from their neighbour Turkey. This population is mainly the remainder left from the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Bulgaria from 1396 to 1878. The genetic make-up of Turks is widely disputed but geneticists tend to agree the Turks are predominantly a Mediterranean people with some Asian genetic input, including Mongolian. The census of 1900 showed a Turkish population of 14.2%, this has steadily declined throughout the 20th/21st centuries. A part of the Turkish population has returned to Turkey or emigrated elsewhere.
This population has been subject to some persecution as Islam is a minority religion in this strongly Eastern Orthodox country.
The Romani population of Bulgaria actually represents a relatively high proportion for this minority group. This is the fifth highest population in the world, behind Spain, Romania, Turkey and France. The 4.68% of population is the highest proportion of any country in the world with a Romani population above 50,000. The Romani (sometimes also called Gypsies) originate historically from the Indian subcontinent. The Romani population stood at 2.4% in the 1900 census and has quadrupled from 90,000 to 371,000 in 111 years.
A fairly typical look of many of the Bulgarian population is shown in the image below. This image captures the Bulgarian folk group, Rodina:
