In the last 23 years, the number of births in Shkodra has decreased by more than 50%.

The decline of births has continued from year to year, and from the 3100 births that were at the beginning of the 2000s, the year 2023 ended with only 1300 births.

The doctor of the Shkodra hospital, Dhurata Kuçi, says that compared to a year ago, there is a decrease as there are over 13% fewer children born in Shkodra.

“The number of births has a very downward trend. We can say that in the last ten years, comparing it with births before 20 years, there is a halving of births. If in the year 2000 we had about 3 thousand, 3 thousand and 100 births, the trend is always decreasing. I can say that 2019 has 1,580, 2020 with 1,584, 2021 with 1,670, 2022 with 1,437 and 2023 again with 1,300 births,” said Dhurata Kuçi, a doctor at Shkodra’s regional hospital.

For the psychologist Altin Nika, the main cause of this decline remains the socio-economic conditions, as an important factor that prevents young people from starting a family.

“In the conditions in which we live today and are going through in general, in Albania and Shkodra is a situation that is very related to the social and economic conditions.  It means economic difficulties, the increase in the standard of living, the inability to pay the monthly bills, the inability to cope with life, these aspects demotivate any kind of initiative that can be up to the addition of a family, i.e. with children, but also demotivation for an extra expense” – said Altin Nika, psychologist.

According to INSTAT data, Shkodra is included in the cities with the highest number of declines in the number of births, together with Kukës, Lezha and Dibra. From 2013 to 2023, births on a national scale have decreased by 37%. This was the strongest decline in the last 30 years from 1993. Albania is also ranked among the countries with the lowest birth rate in Europe.