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Smolyan Province (Bulgarian: Област Смолян, Oblast Smolyan; former name Smolyan okrug) is a province in Southern-central Bulgaria, located in the Rhodope Mountains, neighbouring Greece to the south. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre — the city of Smolyan. The province embraces a territory of 3,192.8 km² (1,232.7 sq mi).^[1] that is divided into 10 municipalities with a total population of 124,795 inhabitants, as of December 2009.^[2][3][4]

Smolyan Province (Област, Oblast) contains 10 municipalities^[5] (singular: община, obshtina; plural: Общини, obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village (towns are shown in bold), and the population of each as of December 2009.

The Smolyan province had a population of 140,066^[11][12] according to the 2001 census, of which 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female.^[13]

As of the end of 2009, the population of the province, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 124,795^[2] of which 23.4% are inhabitants aged over 60 years.^[14]

The economy of the province is based on tourism, mining, timber and machine industries and livestock raising. The main crops of the region are potatoes (about 30% of the national production), rye and barley; but sheep, pigs and cattle are of greater importance for the agriculture. In the eastern parts of the province are located more than 20 lead and zinc mines, which form one of the most extensive ore deposits in the Balkans. The dense coniferous forests are prerequisite for well-developed timber industry in Dospat, Smolyan, Devin. In Smolyan there are big plants producing machine tools and other machinery, while textile industry is mainly developed to the east in Nedelino, Zlatograd, Madan and Rudozem. There is also a synthetic rubber plant in Madan.^{[citation needed]}

Bulgaria's national observatory, Rozhen Observatory, is located near Chepelare. The primary of Media of Bulgaria has a 2-meter mirror, and is the largest observatory in SE Europe.^{[citation needed]}

• Provinces of Bulgaria
• List of villages in Smolyan Province