Kardzhali Oblast

Kardzhali Oblast (Province) (Област Кърджали, transliterated Oblast Kardjali) is an oblast of southern Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece with the Greek prefectures of Xanthi, Rhodope and Evros to the south and east. Kardzhali Oblast area is 3209.1 km². Its main city is Kardzhali.

History
The territory of Kardzhali Oblast was acquired by Bulgaria during the First Balkan War in 1912. In 1913 the region was organized as the district (окръг, okrag in Bulgarian) of Mestanli. This district was part of Stara Zagora Oblast from 1934 until 1949, then it was transferred to the newly formed Haskovo district. In 1959 Kardzhali became the center of a new district with similar borders to the current province. Between 1987 and 1999, the region was part of Haskovo Province, after which it was restored, now as a province and with slightly changed borders.

Obshtinas
Kardzhali Oblast (област, oblast) contains seven obshtinas (communities) (singular: oбщина, obshtina - plural: общини, obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town (in bold) or village, and the population as of 2009.

Towns and villages
The population data and figures are of December 15, 2004
 * Abramovo (pop: 94)
 * Ahrisko (pop: 127, elev: 680 m, postal code: 6761)

Demographics
Kardzhali Oblast had a population of 149,661 according to the 2011 census, of which 49.8% were male and 50.2% were female.

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

Religion
In the 2001 census, 149,839 people from Kardzhali province identified one of the following as their religion (with percentage of total population): 35,265 Orthodox Christian (21.5%), 114,217 Muslim (69.6%), 197 Roman Catholic (0.1%), 89 Protestant (0.05%), and 71 other (0.04%).

Language
In the 2001 census, 160,167 people from Kardzhali province identified one of the following as their mother tongue (with percentage of total population): 101,548 Turkish (61.9%), 57,046 Bulgarian (34.8%), 1,171 Roma (Gypsy) (0.7%), and 402 other (0.2%).

Ethnic groups
In the 2001 census, 158,704 people from Kardzhali province identified themselves as belonging to one of the following ethnic groups (with percentage of total population):