Historical period
Modern Albania
NATO membership in 2009, EU candidate status in 2014, and tourism growing into a central industry.
In plain language
About 2.4 million people live in Albania. That is a lot fewer than twenty years ago, because many people have moved abroad and families are having fewer children.
Simple explanation
About 2.4 million people live in Albania. That is a lot fewer than twenty years ago, because many people have moved abroad and families are having fewer children.
What the 2023 census found
Albania's 2023 census, conducted by INSTAT, recorded a resident population substantially lower than the 2011 census — a decline of a size unusual for a European country outside wartime. The drivers are emigration and a birth rate well below replacement.
The exact figures, with their definitions, are in the Data section of this Atlas with the period and source attached. Definitions matter here: 'resident population' excludes Albanians living abroad, who number in the millions.
Where people live
The population has concentrated dramatically. Tirana County has grown while almost every other county has shrunk, and the mountain counties — Kukës, Dibër, Gjirokastër — have lost the largest shares. Internal migration from the highlands to Tirana and the coastal plain began immediately after 1991 and has not stopped.
The diaspora
Large Albanian communities live in Italy, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, alongside the much older Arbëresh communities of southern Italy. Estimates of the total vary enormously depending on whether they count citizens, people of Albanian descent, or Albanian speakers including Kosovo and North Macedonia.
Money sent home by this diaspora is a significant share of national income.
Why the numbers are contested
Albanian population statistics attract dispute — over the census methodology, over the counting of people who spend part of the year abroad, and over questions on ethnicity and religion. Any single percentage quoted without its source and definition should be treated with caution, including on questions of religious affiliation.
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
Subject
The Albanian Diaspora
More Albanians may live outside the country than in it — chiefly in Italy, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and…
Industry
Remittances
Money sent home by Albanians abroad — a large and stabilising share of national income.
Town
Kamëz
A city on Tirana's northern edge that grew almost entirely from internal migration after 1991.
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.