Varna, often dubbed Bulgaria's "sea capital", was voted the best city to live in for a second consecutive year, a panel consisting of mayors and event organisers announced at a news conference on October 27 2008.

The survey was initiated by Darik Radio and 24 Chassa daily. Based on 44 criteria, journalists from both media rated 40 bigger cities and towns, taking into consideration living conditions and expectation of modern Bulgarians.

By definition, this is a subjective list, because it is based on journalists' personal opinion, the organisers said. Nevertheless, the rating inspired city mayors to enter some kind of competition, to improve bits and pieces in their cities in order to rank higher on the list.

Teteven, a small town at the foot of Stara Planina range in central north Bulgaria, was voted the greenest place in the country. The most beautiful city is Veliko Turnovo, Plovdiv is the city with the richest cultural programme and finally, Sofia is the best city for business endeavours.

"Well, that does not surprise me," Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov said. "More than 70 per cent of all investment in the country are in Sofia, a fact that I really do not consider to have a positive impact on the city's development."

Borissov said that he dreamt of the moment when more investment would be distributed to other parts of the country, so the capital became less populated. He cited recent statistics that every year between 40 000 and 80 000 people move to Sofia, saying "that is why property prices and rents would never go down in this city."

Upon announcing that Varna is the best city to live in, Kiril Yordanov, Varna's mayor, shared similar concerns - the Black Sea city is getting overpopulated. However, there is no official statistics of exactly how many people live there, so the administration could do city planning in advance, he said.

Yordanov said that he has implemented regulations according to which children would be admitted to kindergartens and elementary schools. One of the criteria is that the parents need to present proof that they are employed in Varna, or have a business registered on the city's territory, and could declare income for the preceding year.

More than 300 000 people have voted on grad.dariknews.bg and on a separate listing they have also chosen Varna as the best city in Bulgaria to live in. Second comes Pleven, and third is Rousse.