The Municipality of Shoumen is situated in the central part of Northeastern Bulgaria. The town is an administrative center of the Shoumen region. The Municipality is the tenth largest Bulgarian municipality. It is located in the central part of northeast Bulgaria on the main roadways Sofia-Varna and Ruse-Burgas-Istanbul.

The municipality’s terrain is comparatively various  with hills, plateaus and plains. The territory of the municipality is characterized by a typical continental climate.  The average annual temperatures are about 10,7°C.  The warmest month is July and the coldest one is January. The most widespread soils are the carbonate and the typical humus ones. In the Kamchia valley the soils are alluvial-meadow. In the Shoumen plateau and the southeastern parts of the municipality there are gray wood soils. The rivers Goliama Kamchia, Pakosha, Mutnishka, Poroina, Kamenitza, Stara reka pass through the territory of the municipality.

Shoumen was founded 3200 years ago. During the centuries it has  been a cradle of rich spiritual and material culture - Thracian, Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian. The town of Shoumen is one of the most  attractive centers of the Bulgarian Renaissance. Now it has cultural  institutes of national and regional importance, two universities - The Shoumen University "Episcop Konstantin Preslavski" and the Higher  Military School of artillery and air defence "Panaiot Volov", 17 primary  and 12 secondary schools.

The most important cultural institutions include the Drama and Muppet Theatre " Vassil Drumev", the Public Philharmonic Orchestra, the  Historical Museum, the Public Library "Stilian Chilingirov", the Complex "Founders of Bulgaria", the House of Young People.

Near to the town are situated the first two Bulgarian capitals - Pliska  and Veliki Preslav, and the religious center Madara.  UNESCO lists  the Madara Horseman as a World Heritage Site.

Area and Population
The area of the city of Shoumen is 177 sq km of which 111 sq km is residential and 66 is  industrial.  The municipal area includes 25 villages which occupy 183 sq km.  The municipality 
of Shoumen occupies an area of 670 square kilometers. The division of the territory is:
Agricultural    72.95%, Forested    18.64%, Urban     5.84% and Roads     2.57%.

The population of the municipality of Shoumen is 120 076 people. In the city of Shoumen live  105 052 people and in the 25 villages of the municipality live an additional 15 024 people. 
According to the latest data of the Territorial Statistic Bureau, the municipality of Shoumen’s population density is 0.18 per decare. 

Infrastructure
Through the territory of municipality of Shoumen pass the international roads - 1-2 Russe-Shoumen-Varna, 1-4 Sofia-Turgovishte-Belokopitovo and 1-7 Silistra-Shoumen-Jambol. Through the municipality 23km of the highway Hemus (Sofia-Varna) are under reconstruction.  Shoumen is located 380 km from Sofia, of which 80 km are divided highway.  The car trip is four hours. 

The towns and villages road network in the municipality is 226.09 km. The first-class roads are 45.455 km; the second-class ones are 16.848 km, the third class ones are 37.200 km and the fourth-class ones are 130.420 km. The asphalt-paved roads represent 68.4% or 154.62 km from the total between towns and villages road network.  Within Shoumen’s city limits there are 220-km urban road network, of which 90% are asphalt and 10% paved.

Shoumen is situated on a major railway junction.   The Sofia-Varna and the Ruse-Karnobat lines pass through the city.  The length of railways within the municipality is 30.16 km of which all is electrified.  There are 12.31 km of double railway lines. 

Between 100 km and 130 km from Shoumen are two seaports, Varna (90 km) and Burgas (140 km), and the Danube River port of Ruse (130 km). 

Close to Shoumen is a main gas pipeline from which two small pipelines serve the Municipality industrial complex  (377mm at 5000 meters and 630mm, 800m with a capacity of 100,000 m3).  Capacity exists for both household and industrial needs.  However, the household network is not built. 

25 Km from Shoumen towards Sofia is located the Targovishte airport that will serve as a cargo airport for the Municipalities Shoumen, Razgrad and Targovishte.