Sofia in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Sofia in context

1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
SofiaGrad Sofiya (Region)Bulgaria (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Sofia plotted against Grad Sofiya and Bulgaria. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Sofia's incremental SNDi rose from 2.44 to 3.29 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Sofia ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Grad Sofiya and 2nd out of 6 in Bulgaria as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.29
Rank in Bulgaria
2nd of 6
Rank in Grad Sofiya
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.89
Rank in Bulgaria
2nd of 6
Rank in Grad Sofiya
1st of 1

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.43<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.43<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
SofiaRostov-on-DonAntalya

In new street additions, Sofia and Rostov-on-Don both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Antalya fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Sofia had a more connected network than Antalya in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.