Eurostat publishes the figures / Vlora County, among the nine regions with the largest drop in births in Europe

Fertility rates have fallen rapidly in recent years, ranking Albania as one of the countries with the lowest fertility rates in Europe.

Eurostat calculated that, Vlora is among 9 small regions (county rank, NUTS 3) in Europe with the lowest fertility rate per woman (number of births to women of reproductive age) according to data pertaining to 2022.

Fertility in Vlora is less than 1 child per woman marked on the attached map in the same color as 4 regions of northwestern Spain, three regions of the island of Sardinia and one Greek region.

As can be seen from the map, Italy, Spain and Poland and Albania and Greece have the lowest fertility rates, while France is the European country with the highest fertility rates.

INSTAT's internal data show that during 2022 the national fertility rate fell to 1.21 children per woman of reproductive age, from 1.32 in 2021. This is the strongest decline since 2015, but in the counties of Vlora and Korça, the fertility rate was less than one child per woman of reproductive age.

The highest fertility rates are in the counties of Kukës, Dibra and Lezha.

The fertility index has worsened a lot in the central and southern regions and is slightly better in the north of the country (see the attached map).

Even Tirana, which has a young population at a national level, has a low birth rate with less than 135 children per 100 women of reproductive age.

The fertility index is below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman, which means that a couple cannot replace themselves.

Postponing the age of marriage, career goals and in many cases economic impossibility are causing Albanian women to give birth to fewer and fewer children.

Fertility rates have fallen steadily in these three decades, but in the last two years, they have accelerated, signaling a worsening of the phenomenon in the coming years. In 2023, just 22,210 babies were born across the country, the lowest level since 1934 when official annual data was reported.

The data show that even in the Second World War, more people were born in Albania than today. For example, in 1942 over 36 thousand babies were born at a time when the number of women of reproductive age was lower than today.

In 1950, when the regime of the communist dictatorship was established, 47,291 babies were born, according to data from the INSTAT archives, while the number of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) was only 259,472 thousand. Just over 22,000 babies were born last year, while the number of women of reproductive age was 647,884, or three times higher than in the 1950s./ Monitor