How Albania Is Divided Up

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