page_title: Demographics of Albania
section_title: Population
hierarchical_section_title: Demographics of Albania / Population
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: A population pyramid illustrates the age and sex structure of a country's population and may provide insights about political and social stability, as well as economic development. The population is distributed along the horizontal axis, with males shown on the left and females on the right. The male and female populations are broken down into 5-year age groups represented as horizontal bars along the vertical axis, with the youngest age groups at the bottom and the oldest at the top. The shape of the population pyramid gradually evolves over time based on fertility, mortality, and international migration trends.
context_page_description: The demography of the Albania is monitored by the Institute of Statistics of Albania. The institute has performed demographic censuses since the 1924s. The latest census in Albania was performed in April 2011, and has been deemed as unreliable both within and outside Albania.
  Albania is a fairly linguistically homogeneous country with ethnic Albanians forming the majority in the country. Albania has 2,876,591 inhabitants according to the INSTAT calculations current as of January 1, 2017.
  The first official population statistics for Albania was the 1923 census, when the country had a total of 823,000 inhabitants. Previous censuses carried out by the Ottoman Empire, which are not yet available. A shift in administrative borders in 1913 made comparison of various periods more complicated. Maddison from 2001, estimates that in Albania, about 200,000 people lived up to the year 1600, and that the population grew to 300,000 by 1700, implying an annual average growth rate of 0.4% in that period. However, population growth accelerated from the declaration of independence in 1912 to 1944 to 0.7% per year.
context_section_description: With a population of 2.87 million in 2017, Albania ranks 136th in the world by population. The population density is 101 inhabitants per square kilometre. The overall life expectancy in Albania at birth is 78 years. The total fertility rate of 1.70 children per mother is one of the lowest in the world. In 2016, the population of Albania was about 2,89 million, comprising 1,447 million male and 1,443 female persons. There were 38,003 live births and 20,737 deaths in Albania. The natural increase of the population was positive, as the number of births exceeded the number of deaths by 17,266. Due to external migration and low birth rate, the population declined by 18,307. The total dependency ratio of population in Albania is 46.8%.
  In 2001, the number of households amounted to 726,895. The age structure was under 6 years by 10.8% and 65 years and older by 7.5%. However, the sex ratio amounted to 49.9% males and 50.1% females of the total population. Furthermore, 2,737,614 of the population was older than 6 years. In 2011, the total population was 2,831,741. The comparison of the figures shows that the population has decreased by 7.7% in about ten years. Large scale emigration and fertility decline are supposed to be the main causes of the observed population decrease. A preliminary estimate of the number of persons that refused to participate in the census is 29,355 (1.04%). This figure is based on the number of dwellings for which a refusal was recorded and is included in the total population. The total population is composed of 1,421,810 males (50.2%) and 1,409,931 females (49.8%). For the first time in the history of population censuses in the nation, the population in urban areas is larger than the population of rural areas. According to 2011 census preliminary results, 53.7 percent of the population lives in urban areas and 46.3 percent in rural areas.
  The 2011 census is regarded as unreliable and inaccurate by the Council of Europe, showing incompatibility with the protection of national minorities. Also, the World Council of Churches sent letters to the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding the matter, having conducted their own questionnaire which showed major irregularities. It was the first census to include ethnicity, was struck by controversy since according to article 20 of the Census law, there is a $1,000 fine for anyone who declares anything other than what was written down on the individual's birth certificate. Some of the minorities, mainly the Greeks, boycotted the census. The religious affiliation of the population was 56.7% Muslims, 13.79% undeclared, 10.03% Catholics, 6.75% Orthodox believers, 5.49% other, 2.5% Atheists, 2.09% Bektashis and 0.14% other Christians.
  According to the Institute of Statistics INSTAT, the population in 2016 was 2,886,026. Tirana County is the area with the highest population of 811,649 in the country. Fier County remains the population with the second highest population with a total of 312,488. The Counties with the lowest result are Gjirokastër, Kukës and Dibër respectively with 70,331, 84,035 and 134,153 inhabitants. About 53.4% of Albania's population live in cities. The three largest counties account for half of the population.
  Almost 53.4% of the population of Albania living in cities. As of the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), the three largest counties account for half of the population. Over 1 million people lives in the Tirana and Durrës, making it the largest urban area in Albania. The capital Tirana, is one of largest cities in the Balkan Peninsula and ranks 7th with a population about 800,000.
  The second largest is the port city of Durrës, with a population of 201.110, followed by Vlorë, the largest city in southern Albania, with 141.513 inhabitants. The Institute of Statistics forecast that the population may even increase by less than a fifth from 763.560 by 2011 to 909.252
  by 2031, depending on the actual birth rate and the level of net migration.
caption: 2016 Albanian population pyramid.
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