During the two years 2020-2021, the Covid-19 pandemic has seriously affected the health of the population and also reversed the progress that our country had made in terms of increasing life expectancy. 

Official INSTAT data show that life expectancy in 2021 reached 76.5 years from 79 years in 2019 before the pandemic. From 2019 to 2021, the life expectancy of Albanians has been shortened by 2.5 years, one of the highest rates in Europe. 

Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn child is expected to live. In 2021, life expectancy was estimated at 74.4 years for men and 78.7 years for women. 

Life expectancy at birth has generally increased from 2011 to 2019, with women tending to live longer, but life expectancy at birth has decreased in 2020-2021, driven by an increase in the number of deaths from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Albanian women born in 2021 are expected to live 4.3 years longer than Albanian men born in the same year. 

Albanians in the 1950s lived an average of only 54.4 years according to official INSTAT data, while from that time until 2020, life expectancy increased by 42%. 

Historical data on life expectancy in the last 70 years show that the greatest improvement occurred in the two decades of 1950-1970, this indicator increased by 18 years or 33%. 

From 54.4 years in 1950, the average life expectancy in 1970 reached 72.3 years. Since that time, the life expectancy indicator in our country has increased at a low rate. In the first year of transition, life expectancy in the country was 75.4 years and in 2020 it is calculated at 77.3 years with an improvement of about two years. 

The population in Albania has changed over the last 30 years. This comes, in particular, due to changes in the economic system, moving from a centralized economy to an open market system which has had its effect on births, deaths, migration, and certainly has an impact on the future of the population. Albanian. 

Population and life expectancy statistics are very important for other planning purposes. It is important to know how many people currently live in the country and how many there will be in the future, so that better decisions can be made regarding the construction of schools, hospitals and roads. 

It is also important to know how old the population is and will be in the coming years in order to plan for, for example, pensions or health care. 

(Source: Monitor)