Average salary in Bulgaria: 2026 figures by district

Working life · Last reviewed: 2026-08-23

First quarter 2026: the official numbers

Wage statistics are published quarterly and include both the quarterly average and the individual monthly values. In the first quarter of 2026 the month-to-month variation is instructive: January and February are close together while March is noticeably higher. Such jumps are linked to supplementary payments made in particular months, which is why a single month should never be read as an annual level.

The district gap

A national average hides geography. Sofia as the capital pulls the average upward, while the weakest-paying districts sit far below it.

The distance between the two ends of that table is a lifestyle decision, not a rounding difference. Higher pay in the capital comes with higher rent and sharper competition; lower pay in small districts comes with cheaper housing and a much narrower job market. Judge an offer against the average for the district you would actually live in, together with the cost of living there.

How sector composition distorts the average

Add the sector gap to the geographic one and the national figure explains even less. Information and communication — the production and distribution of information and creative products, plus telecommunications — had an average more than twice the national figure in the first quarter of 2026. The reverse holds for parts of agriculture and low-margin services. Reading the breakdown by economic activity is far more informative than reading the headline number.

Average is not median

This is the most common mistake made with pay data. The average divides the sum of all wages by the number of employees, so a handful of very high salaries pulls it up. The median is the pay of the person exactly in the middle and is immune to extremes. Where the distribution is skewed upward, the median normally sits below the average. In other words, an average of 1,407 euro does not mean half of employees earn more than that.

Gross, not net

The published wage is gross. Net pay is what remains after the employee's social and health insurance contributions and income tax. When you compare an offer with the average, make sure both numbers are gross — otherwise the comparison is meaningless.

How many people this covers

Employment counts are published alongside pay. At the end of June 2026 the number of people in employment relationships stood at 2.37 million, 0.6 percent more than at the end of March. The measure covers employees only: the self-employed, company owners and undeclared work fall outside it. That boundary matters when you decide what population the average actually describes.

Using the number well

1. 1

   Always name the period

   Not "the average salary is 1,407 euro" but "in the first quarter of 2026 the average gross wage was 1,407 euro".
2. 2

   Drill down to the district

   Separate series are published by district and statistical region.
3. 3

   Find your sector

   The economic activity breakdown gets far closer to reality.
4. 4

   Pair it with living costs

   Pay alone says nothing without rent, transport and food.
5. 5

   Convert gross to net

   Build a budget on the net figure, not the gross one.

What this page deliberately omits

• •Average pay by occupation — quarterly statistics break down by economic activity, not by job title.
• •Net equivalents — deductions depend on personal circumstances.
• •Next quarter's figure — anything circulating before publication is a forecast.
• •Averages from salary comparison websites — these rest on voluntary self-reporting and do not replace official statistics.

Frequently asked questions

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