Plovdiv canal in the country. In that period, Plovdiv became the birthplace of Bulgaria's movement for democratic reform, which by 1989 had garnered enough support to enter government. Plovdiv has hosted specialized exhibitions of the World's Fair in 1981, 1985, and 1991. The population by permanent address for the municipality of Plovdiv for 2007 is 380,682, which makes it the second in population in the nation. According to the data of the National Institute of Statistics (NSI), the people who actually live in Plovdiv are 346,790. According to the 2012 census, 339,077 live within the city limits and 403,153 in the
Plovdiv the Slavic name began to appear as "Papaldiv/n Plo(v)div, Pladiv, Pladin, Plapdiv, Plovdin", which evolved from a Thracian variant "Pulpudeva". As a result, the name has lost any meaning. In British English the Bulgarian variant "Plòvdiv" has become prevalent after World War I. The Crusaders mentioned the city as "Prineople", "Sinople" and "Phinepople". The Ottomans called the city "Filibe", a corruption of "Philip", in a document from 1448. Plovdiv is located on the banks of the Maritsa river, southeast of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The city is in the southern part of the "Plain of Plovdiv", an alluvial plain that