Bulgarian Americans

Bulgarian Americans are Americans of Bulgarian descent.

For the 2000 United States Census, 55,489 Americans indicated Bulgarian as their first ancestry, while 92,841 persons declared to have Bulgarian ancestry. Those can include Bulgarian Americans living in the United States for one or several generations, dual Bulgarian American citizens, or any other Bulgarian Americans who consider themselves to be affiliated to both cultures or countries.

Some Bulgarian Americans might be born in Bulgaria, the United States or other countries with ethnic Bulgarian population. Because some Bulgarians are not American citizens, others are dual citizens, and still others' ancestors have come to the US several generations ago, some of these people consider themselves to be simply Americans, Bulgarians, Bulgarians living in the United States or American Bulgarians.

After 2000 US census, in the recent years the population grew significantly — according to the general assessments of Bulgarian diplomatic representations in the US for 2010, there are 250,000 Bulgarians residing in the country, and more than 30,000 students.

History
Mass Bulgarian immigration to the United States began sometime in the second part of the 19th century. Chicago is a good example of a city known through the years for being inhabited by a significant number of Bulgarians compared to other cities. There is a book written by the famous and eminent Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov, called To Chicago and Back (Bulgarian:"До Чикаго и назад") which was first published in 1894. According to the 2000 census, the highest number of Bulgarians lived in the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami.

The United States has one of the highest numbers of Bulgarians of any country in the world. As many as 250,0001 Bulgarians live in the country. From the Eastern European countries, Bulgaria has the second highest number of students who study in the United States, after Russia.

Demographics
The 2000 United States Census shows that there were 63,000 people of Bulgarian descent in the US. According to the same source, the state with the largest number of Bulgarians is California, followed by Illinois, New York, Florida, Ohio, and Indiana. Texas, more specifically Houston, also has a growing population. According to the 2000 US census the cities with the highest number of Bulgarian Americans are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. 17% of Bulgarian Americans hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Bulgarian Americans have an annual median household income of $44,578. Following the 2000 US census when Bulgarians were 50-100,000, during the last 10 years their number has grown significantly to over 250,000.

Bulgarian-born population
Bulgarian-born population in the US since 2010:

Language
According to the 2000 US Census, 28,565 people indicated that they speak Bulgarian at home in 2000. But in the recent years the number grew significantly to over 250,000 people. Some Bulgarian Americans speak Bulgarian, especially the more recent immigrants, while others might not speak the language at all, or speak Bulgarian mixed with English to a lesser or greater extent.

Some Bulgarian Americans understand Bulgarian even though they might not be able to speak the language. There are cases where older generations of Bulgarians or descendants of Bulgarian immigrants from the early part of the 20th century are fluent in the Bulgarian language as well.

Notable people

 * John Atanasoff - inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer
 * Christo - world-famous artist, known for projects such as The Gates and The Wrapped Reichstag
 * Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev - writer, art historian and curator
 * Miroslav Barnyashev - professional wrestler for WWE who goes by the ring name "Rusev"
 * Laura Chukanov - Miss USA 2009 competitor
 * Bill Danoff - songwriter, singer
 * Carl Djerassi - chemist, developed the first oral contraceptive pill, nominated as one of the greatest medical discoveries in the last 166 years
 * Stephane Groueff - writer, journalist, wrote the book Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb
 * Dan Koloff - early 20th century wrestler
 * Ted Kotcheff - film and TV director and producer, First Blood, Weekend at Bernie's
 * Leah LaBelle - singer, finalist in American Idol
 * Milcho Leviev - jazz pianist and composer
 * Alex Maleev - comic book illustrator, artist best known for Marvel Comics' series Daredevil (vol. 2), collaborating with writer Brian Michael Bendis
 * Angela Nikodinov - figure skater
 * Victor Ninov - nuclear physicist
 * Peter Petroff - inventor, engineer, NASA scientist, and adventurer
 * Maria Popova - writer, critic and blogger; in 2012, she was named among the "100 Most Creative People in Business" by Fast Company magazine
 * Svetla Protich - classical pianist
 * Andre Roussimoff - professional wrestler, known as André the Giant.
 * Dimitar Sasselov - astronomer and professor at Harvard University
 * Kyril Vassilev (1908–1987) - portrait painter of royalty and American society during the mid-20th century
 * Asen Yordanov - aviation constructor with a global recognition