Emigration and aging are rapidly decreasing the population of Albania.
Comparative data from Eurostat show that Gjirokastra and Korça ranked as the European regions with the largest decline in natural population growth in 2021.
The natural population growth of Gjirokastra fell by 7% from January 2021 to January 2022, while in the Korça region, it fell by 4.3%.
The Dibra, Kukës, and Tirana regions also rank among the regions with the highest natural growth. In Albania, among other factors, natural population growth was negatively impacted by the high mortality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, where additional deaths increased by around 30%.
Between January 1, 2021, and January 1, 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the population of the EU decreased by 265,257 people. This reduction is attributed to changes in natural population (more deaths than births), as net migration remained positive (more people entered the EU than left). Furthermore, the pandemic played a role. During the same period, Albania’s population decreased by 36,000 people, with a decline of 1.2%, and natural growth was negative by about 3,300 people as the pandemic led to higher deaths than births.
Out of 3,980 regions in Europe, for which data is available, 173 regions had a positive natural population growth rate, and 11 regions showed no change (the same number of births as deaths).
In 2021, all regions of Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Portugal, and Romania recorded negative rates of natural population change. In the cases of the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia, almost every region recorded a negative rate with only one exception each.
The most affected by population loss were all regions of Bulgaria. On the contrary, every region in Ireland had positive rates of natural population change in 2021, while a relatively high number of regions in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden also recorded positive rates. The same occurred in Luxembourg and Cyprus.
According to data from the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), 27,284 babies were born in Albania during 2021, marking a 2.8% decrease compared to the previous year. During 2021, 30,580 people lost their lives, marking a 10.8% increase compared to 2020.
In 2021, four counties in the country recorded positive natural population growth, while in eight other counties, natural population growth was negative.
