By Natalie Pitheckoff

Most Americans know very little about Bulgaria. Even fewer are aware of its aging population, which is creating great challenges (and opportunities) across the country. People often hear or read about aging in countries such as China and India due to their large projected increases in older adults. It seems like Bulgaria gets lost among the giants, even though the country’s current rate of population aging ranks fourth worldwide behind only Japan, Italy, and Germany (Karpinska & Dykstra, 2014; Velkovska, 2010).

As a Bulgarian citizen, I felt it was due time to shed some light on the country’s aging and demographic landscape. I decided to write a manuscript for The Gerontologist, published in the October edition, which describes in detail the factors that have led Bulgaria to its current circumstance and examines the serious implications for the years ahead.

Bulgaria is a small nation in Eastern Europe with about 7.1 million citizens, slightly more than the population of Massachusetts. More importantly, that number has been shrinking. Since the late 1980s, the population of Bulgaria has decreased by over one million people (Beleva, 2016). This shift has accelerated population aging within the country. Two main factors have contributed to this phenomenon: low fertility rates and high emigration (Georgieva, 2007; Vassilev, 2005; Velkovska, 2010; World Bank, 2016).

Many young Bulgarian women choose to forgo having any children or more than one child. For instance, my cousin in-law Stanislava opted to only have one child due to her profession as an attorney and personal desire to travel. Like many places around the world (and as outlined in the demographic transition model), the need to have multiple children to help work family farms and fields have greatly diminished. Instead, young women like Stanislava choose to pursue professional identities and reduce their family’s economic burden. The nation’s low fertility rate (1.5 children per woman) indicates that the younger cohorts of individuals will be smaller than those who are middle aged or in later life.

My father’s life story is a fitting example of the second factor, emigration. At the age of 16, he fled Bulgaria to escape communism in 1965. At first, he lived in a refugee work camp in Italy, but at age 18 had the opportunity to emigrate to the United States or one of five other countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). As you might have guessed, he selected the United States as his new “home.” Upon coming to the United States, my father held various menial jobs around the country and in time educated himself to become an attorney. While attending law school in Michigan, he met my mother and I was born in 1989.

This story highlights a trend that continues to this day in Bulgaria. Many younger Bulgarians choose to emigrate to other countries for better employment and economic opportunities. This trend is likely to extend into the future because Bulgaria has relaxed migration barriers ever since it entered the European Union in 2007. As such, many Bulgarians choose to live abroad in predominantly Western European nations where salaries are higher.

By writing the International Spotlight for The Gerontologist, I wanted to honor my heritage but also expose others to the aging realities of a nation rarely cited in the gerontological literature. More attention should be paid to Bulgaria because only through greater funding, research, and gerontological education can the nation cope with its expanding aging population.

Natalie Pitheckoff is a PhD candidate in the Gerontology Department of UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School.