Bulgaria is shrinking. Low birth rates, short life expectancy and persistent net outward migration have produced negative population growth, which, if not stemmed, will cause Bulgaria's current 7.2 million population to decline by nearly one-third by the year 2060. The Government of Bulgaria has enacted the usual array of family incentive programs to tackle the problem, and the demographic issue became a central plank in political party platforms ahead of July 2009 national elections. But without significant additional efforts to increase inward migration and reverse a devastating brain drain that began in the early 1990's, Bulgaria will face a critical demographic situation in coming decades.