Bulgarians are an ethnic minority in North Macedonia. Bulgarians are mostly found in the Strumica area, but over the years, the absolute majority of southwestern North Macedonia have declared themselves Macedonian. The town of Strumica and its surrounding area (including Novo Selo) were part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria between the Balkan wars and the end of World War I, as well as during World War II. The total number of Bulgarians counted in the 2002 Census was 1,417 or roughly 0.07%. Around 90,000 nationals of North Macedonia have received Bulgarian citizenship since 2002, and some 53,000 are still waiting for such.