Satovcha Municipality

Satovcha Municipality is a municipality in southwestern Bulgaria and is one of the municipalities in the Blagoevgrad Province.

Geography
It covers the Southwestern Rhodope Mountains. 14 settlemements belong to the municipality with a total of 18,997 inhabitants (21.07.05) and a territory of 334,245 km2. Administrative, industrial and cultural center of the municipality is the village of Satovcha.

Population
As of December 2018, there are 14,263 inhabitants living in the municipality of Satovcha, down from 18,265 inhabitants in 2000. The municipality of Satovcha has a Muslim majority (over 85% of the total population). Nearly all of them are Bulgarian Muslims (on the contrary, most Muslims in Bulgaria are ethnic Turks). Satovcha has a declining birth rate as young women are moving out of the villages.

Religion
According to the latest Bulgarian census of 2011, the religious composition, among those who answered the optional question on religious identification, was the following:

Settlements in the municipality

 * Bogolin
 * Dolen
 * Fargovo
 * Godeshevo
 * Kochan
 * Kribul
 * Osina
 * Pletena
 * Satovcha
 * Slashten
 * Tuhovishta
 * Vaklinovo
 * Valkosel
 * Zhizhevo