Shumen Oblast

Shumen Province (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.

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.

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:

Religion
Religious adherence in the province according to 2001 census:

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.