The anti-Malthusian nightmare of Bulgaria

This is what happens when a nation ravaged by Communism and the empty hope of post-Christian Europe just gives up.

Eight of the municipality's nine schools have closed because there are so few children. The maternity ward has long since shut its doors.

"We have almost used up the cemetery we have now," said Todor Todorov, mayor of this town in the Rhodope Mountains of southern Bulgaria. "We're in a hurry to find terrain for a new one."
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Bulgaria's population will decline by 34 percent from 2005 to 2050, from 7.7 million to 5 million.
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there are just 1.5 workers for every 2 pensioners and the ratio is getting worse. ... The fertility rate - the average number of children per woman - is now 1.3 in Bulgaria, the same as in Germany. The rate needed to keep the population level is 2.2. ... 144 villages that now have populations of 0. An additional 337 villages have 10 or fewer residents.

The village of Balkan Mahala, about 12 kilometers, or seven miles, from Luky, has an official population of eight. But its residents, the members of two families, said the real number was five because one family moved away last year. There are about 30 houses scattered across the hills, with stone roofs and spacious yards, most of them abandoned.

A lot of people, especially in the UK are moving to Bulgaria because land is so inexpensive. Supply and demand. A depopulated country has lots of land. Great to have an estate, as long as you don't have to earn a living there.