The rural areas in Bulgaria cover more then 80% of the country territory and account for about 29% of the population. Their development depends strongly on agricultural sector. The paper examines structural changes in agriculture, labour market situation in rural areas and presents the main results of the survey performed in three region of Bulgaria. The study shows a substantial decline in the number of farm with economic size between 0,5 and 3 ESU and a stable increase in the number of large farms. Major factors having impact on farm restructuring are: improvements in economic situation, in particular the increase in real income, positive developments of land market, deterioration of age structure of rural population and the habits of rural population... |