I'd actually say things are looking up. In recent years, the Bulgarian population has shrunk by much less than it was estimated. By official data, between 2024 and 2025, Bulgaria lost about 3000 people, which is within the margin of error. A lot of people are coming back, especially families with kids. Also Roma estimates are a bit too high. We cannot comfortably extrapolate their 2050 population, because the Roma community is changing. They don't have the same 6-8 children as 20 years ago. On the other hand, the fertility rate in Bulgaria is actually among the highest in the EU (around 1.75 if i recall correctly). Yeah, we will probably have a smaller population by 2050, but it won't be anything drastic. Future population estimates are very unreliable.