Albania’s population is falling faster than even the most dire projections.
The Institute of Statistics produced a research in 2019 forecasting that the country would have roughly 2.8 million residents in 2022 in the worst-case scenario, although the population this year is over 50,000 less than the worst-case scenario forecasted by INSTAT.
Rural areas have been struck the hardest by population decline. The number of people living in villages has decreased by over 4% in the recent year.
Sociologists predict that if the government does not put in place procedures to combat depopulation, the country will lose thousands of people in a matter of years.
Last year, Albania’s population shrank by more than 36,000 people. According to the Institute of Statistics, the country’s population was less than 2.8 million in January of this year, the lowest level in the last three decades.