Bulgaria

Highlights

  1. Internet Society rates the choice of Internet service providers as good.
  2. In Bulgaria, there are 30 data centers and there are 7 active IXPs.
  3. Bulgaria received a security preparedness score of 74.56 on the 2024 Global Cybersecurity Index. Its e-government system readiness score is 67.96.
  4. Internet Society gives Bulgaria an overall Internet resilience score of 71%, which means it has high capacity to withstand unexpected faults or challenges to normal operation.
  5. As of 2024, the population of Bulgaria was 6,444,366.
ccTLD
.bg
Flag of Bulgaria
Region
Europe
Sub-region
Eastern Europe
Population
6,444,366
UN classification(s)
  • Upper middle income country

Internet Usage Permanent link

Internet penetration

80%

of the population used the Internet at least once over a 3-month period

90%
Europe average

Usage by gender

Proportion of the population that uses the Internet, by gender

Note: Measurement methods vary by country.

  • Female: 80%
  • Male: 81%

Urban and rural Internet penetration

Percentage of the population that uses the Internet in rural and urban areas

Note: Measurement methods vary by country.

  • Urban: 82%
  • Rural: 71%

Average download speed

Based on an average of 300 users

  • 4.47 Mbps
    Broadband
  • 5.24 Mbps
    Mobile

Average Internet cost

< 1%

of average income (GNI) is needed to cover a low-consumption basket, using at least 3G technology.

Network Infrastructure Permanent link

Mobile 4G and 5G coverage

  • 100%
    has access to at least one device with 4G mobile Internet
  • 89%
    has access to at least one device with 5G mobile Internet

Active networks

The building blocks of the Internet, identified by Autonomous System (AS) numbers.

669
active networks

International connections

Routes to the global Internet

Upstream diversity is

Very Good
More than 2 connections to the global Internet improves the ability to recover from unexpected events.

Adoption of IPv6

17%
of users can access online resources using IPv6, the new generation of the Internet Protocol
31%
Europe average

Market Overview Permanent link

Data centers

Number of data centers in operation

30

active data centers

Internet Exchange Points

7

IXPs in Bulgaria

7
Europe average
90% of 669

active networks connect via an IXP

Total number of IXP members in Bulgaria

Locally cached content

78%

of the top 1000 websites in Bulgaria can be accessed through an in-country server or cache

70%
Europe average

Top Internet service providers

Top Internet Service Providers (ISPs) by market share

  • Vivacom Bulgaria EAD: 29%
  • A1 Bulgaria EAD: 24%
  • CETIN Bulgaria EAD: 14%
  • SpaceX Starlink: 12%
  • UltraNET Ltd: 1%

Market competition

Good

market competitiveness for Internet customers and end users

Digital public services rating

The UN's measure of a country's e-government ecosystem readiness

80.88

Country-level domain use

90,967

domains registered using .bg, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD).

Security Permanent link

Global Cybersecurity Index

Estimates the ability of a country or economy to prevent and manage cyber incidents

75 / 100

Routing security practices

The use of resource public key infrastructure (RPKI), which connects IP prefixes to the correct autonomous system (AS)

ROA

Route origin authorization uses a cryptographic signature to certify network announcements

  • 94%
    of IPv4 prefixes protected
  • 81%
    of IPv6 prefixes protected

ROV

Route origin validation filters out route announcements

  • 28%
    of networks are using ROV to filter out invalid prefixes and networks

DNSSEC status

  • Active

DNSSEC coverage

< 1%

of all domains under the ccTLD are protected with DNSSEC

10%
Europe average

Adoption of DNSSEC

55%

of DNS queries are protected by DNSSEC, across all web traffic

46%
Europe average

Footnotes Permanent link

The geographic boundaries and country names shown do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Internet Society concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities. Regions and Sub-Regions are taken from the UN Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use (Series M, No. 49).

Pulse uses the most recent possible data from international sources. For some indicators in Pulse, the source data may be updated more frequently. For more information on how often we update individual data points, see the Indicator page.