Population and Demographic Situation

The Republic of Albania is located in South-eastern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas to the west. Montengro and Kosova in the north, Macedonia in the east and Greece in south.

During the timeframe 1945 to 1989, Albanian population experienced the quickest population growth in Europe. Population increased  from 1.1 million inhabitants in 1945 to 3.2 million inhabitants in 1989. INSTAT 2024 Census  preliminary data count a population of 2 402 113 inhabitants.  Based on self declaration method and based on Census of 2023 preliminary data  ethnicity composition of the population is as follows: Albanians 99.4%, Greeks 0.6%, other 1% (including Vlach, Roma, Macedonians, Montenegrin, Roma  and Egyptian). The law on minorities was updated in 2017 and includes the following recognized minorities: Montenegrins, Greeks, Vlachs, Roma, Egyptian, Bosnians, Macedonians, Serbs and Bulgarians. Although the fertility rate of 2.1 is high, decline in population during the period 1991-2024 is mainly influenced by high waves of migration during post-communist transition.^[2]

Religion

Based on 2023 Census preliminary data which are based on self declaration about 1.1. million  Albanians declare themselves as Muslim, around 201 530 declare themselves as Roman Catholics about 115 647  people declared themselves as Bektashi, 189000 were Orthodox, 173 256 declared themselves as non-believers and 70000 declared themselves either atheists or belonging to other minor religion groups. About 134 000 of the population refused to answer to this question.

Language

The Albanian language, [Shqip or Shqipe] is of interest to linguists because it is the only surviving member of its branch of the Indo-European language family. Influenced by centuries of rule by foreigners, the Albanian vocabulary has adopted many words from the Latin, Greek, Turkish, Italian, and Slavic tongues.

Albanian language has two main dialects. The first is the Geg [Gegë] dialect  spoken mainly in the north and Central Albania as well as by Albanians inhabiting in present Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia.  The tosk [Toskë] dialect is spoken in south Albania. More archaic forms of this dialect are spoken also in Albanian communities of Greece and Italy. Despite variations Albanians can understand one another without substantial difficulties.

Albanian which is also the official language is spoken by almost 98% of the population of Albania. Minority languages that constitute remaining 2% are Greek (around 60,000 speakers), Romani (the same number), and in lesser numbers, Bulgarian and Serb.^[4]