In 2023, 10% fewer babies were born than in 2022. But parallel to this decrease, the budget for the baby bonus increased.

Of the 3.3 billion ALL paid from the state budget as a bonus for babies born in Albania in 2023, about 40% of the value went to babies born abroad, from Albanian migrants. It is precisely this factor that has led to this ratio between the decrease in the number of births and the increase in the bonus in the budget.

From 2019 to the end of 2023, the government has paid over 141 million euros in the form of a baby bonus, but on the other hand, the number of births in the same period in Albania has dropped by 22%.

In order to put an end to this imbalance, at the end of December the Council of Ministers approved a condition, in which the parents of babies who spent 180 days in Albania in the previous year benefit from the bonus. These data will be obtained from the TIMS system.

The government also decided that the bonus should be benefited by foreigners who have settled in Albania as asylum seekers or refugees who decide that their child’s citizenship should be Albanian.

The decision related to the baby bonus was changed aiming for the benefits to be for citizens living inside the country, since over the years Albanian migrants living abroad had also benefited from this legal space. For the government this was a double benefit as they benefit from the schemes in the countries where they are deployed.

In 2019, the government started applying the baby bonus, which has a financial benefit of 40,000 ALL for the first child, 80,000 ALL for the second and 120,000 ALL for the third and subsequent babies as a policy to increase fertility, but so far the scheme has not been effective.