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Around 29,000 Albanians left last year, INSTAT estimates

Around 29,000 Albanians left last year, INSTAT estimates

Albania's population on January 1, 2025 fell to 3.63 million people and was 27 thousand or 1.2% less than in 2024, according to the latest estimate by the Institute of Statistics published on Thursday. This is the first estimate after the 2023 Census when 2.4 million people were counted in Albania.

“The population of Albania on January 1, 2025 is 2,363,314 inhabitants, decreasing by 1.2% compared to January 1, 2024,” INSTAT stated in its assessment. The natural increase of the population, which is measured as the simple difference between births and deaths, was 1,208 people, while net migration was at the level of 28,836 people.

The median age of the population increased to 44.3 years, meaning that more than half of the 3.63 million residents are older than 44 years old and the other half are younger.

The overall dependency ratio reached 57%, which means that 43% of the population is of working age and needs to care for 57% of the population, with 33% being elderly and 24% being children.

"Population estimates on January 1, 2025 show that only the Tirana region recorded an increase in population, compared to the previous year by 0.2%. The largest population decreases were recorded in the regions of Shkodër (-2.5%) and Kukës (-2.3%)," says INSTAT.

INSTAT's annual population estimate takes into account available administrative data such as births and deaths as well as estimates of migration or emigration trends. In the past, INSTAT had assumed an almost balanced trend between the two factors, which was assumed to keep the population almost constant at around 2.8 million inhabitants.

The 2023 Census revealed that the estimate had been overly optimistic, as on average over the twelve years from the 2011 Census to the 2023 Census, net emigration was around 500,000, with just over 600,000 leaving and just over 100,000 returning. The net difference is 40,000 people per year, a figure higher than INSTAT's latest estimate of net emigration of around 29,000 people during 2024. Reporter.al

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