Country
Albania
A mountainous country of about 2.4 million people on the Adriatic and Ionian seas, between Montenegro, Kosovo, North…
In plain language
Albania has 12 counties, which are big areas. Inside them are 61 municipalities, which are the local councils. Before 2014 there were many more, much smaller local units, and they were merged together.
Simple explanation
Albania has 12 counties, which are big areas. Inside them are 61 municipalities, which are the local councils. Before 2014 there were many more, much smaller local units, and they were merged together.
The two levels
Albania has two levels of local government. The county (qark) is the larger unit — there are twelve, each named after its main town. Inside the counties are municipalities (bashki) — there are sixty-one, and they are the level that actually delivers local services.
Municipalities are further divided into administrative units (njësi administrative), which are usually the former communes. These are not separate authorities; they are offices of the municipality.
What changed in 2014
Before the 2014 territorial reform Albania had 373 local government units — 65 municipalities and 308 communes, many of them very small. The reform merged them into 61 municipalities. Older sources, maps and datasets still use the pre-2014 divisions, which is a common source of confusion when comparing statistics across years.
Why this matters when reading data
A population figure for 'Berat' can mean the city, the municipality (which includes surrounding villages) or the county (which includes four other municipalities). They are very different numbers. Every place page in this Atlas states which unit a figure refers to.
The twelve counties
- Berat · Dibër · Durrës · Elbasan · Fier · Gjirokastër
- Korçë · Kukës · Lezhë · Shkodër · Tiranë · Vlorë
Connected subjects
These are real relationships in the Atlas — places that are near this one, and subjects it genuinely belongs with. Nothing here is a generic recommendation.
Related subjects
Explainer
How Albania Is Governed
A parliamentary republic: a 140-seat assembly, a prime minister who governs, and a president elected by parliament.
Subject
Albania in Data
Population, GDP, inflation, wages, tourism, trade and energy — each with its observation period, its producer and a…
Sources
This page draws on the curated inventory only; no external source has been attached to it yet.
Something wrong on this page? Corrections are welcome and are checked against the source record. Tell us what is wrong and, if you can, where the right figure comes from.