Albania's Population

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.

A century of movement

Albanians have been leaving for a long time. After the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century, waves of refugees crossed to southern Italy and Sicily, founding the Arbëresh villages that still speak an old form of Albanian. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries poverty sent men to Istanbul, Romania, Egypt and the United States, where Boston became the centre of Albanian-American life and of the national cause — Fan Noli, later bishop and prime minister, began his career there.

Communism reversed the flow. Leaving the country without permission was treated as treason, internal migration needed official approval, and a high birth rate made Albania the youngest population in Europe. When the regime fell the dam broke: in 1991 crowded ships such as the Vlora carried thousands across the Adriatic to Brindisi and Bari, while others walked over the mountains into Greece. A second wave followed the 1997 crisis, and emigration since has been steadier, younger and aimed increasingly at Germany, the United Kingdom and North America.

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.