Although it is one of the countries that has a small population, Albanian citizens are occupying an important weight in the countries of the European Union.

According to a recent INSTAT report, Albanians rank ninth in Europe in the list of non-EU citizens living in one of the European Union states, with about 2.4% of the total number of non-EU foreigners , who live in one of the EU countries.

According to Eurostat, at the beginning of 2021, 23.7 million people who were not citizens of a member state lived in the EU. This was equivalent to 5.3% of the EU population. 31 non-EU nationals accounted for at least 1.0% of all non-EU nationals living in the EU, as well as recognized non-nationals.

These together accounted for 76.7% of all non-EU citizens living in the EU. The largest communities were Moroccan (8.7% of all people residing in the EU who were not nationals of an EU member state), Turkish (8.5%) and Syrian (5.2%).

After the Syrians, China ranked with about 4.2%, the United Kingdom with about 4%, Ukraine, with about 3.9%, Russia, with 3.5%, Algeria with about 3% and then Albania.

All the countries ranked above Albania have a much higher current population than ours: Morocco (37 million); Turkey (85 million); Syria (21 million); China (1.4 billion); United Kingdom (67.3 million); Russia (143 million); Algeria (44 million).

While the population of Albania is currently estimated at around 2.8 million inhabitants, it will be the new Census, which is expected to take place in September, that will shed light on the real size of the population that still remains in the country.

In terms of the weight of the population living in the EU, Albanians are compared to the Indians, who come after us, instead of ten (India has 1.4 billion inhabitants).

According to other Eurostat statistics, in 2021, there were a total of about 570 thousand Albanian citizens in the EU. Italy holds the main weight with about 433 thousand people. In Germany, the number of Albanian citizens has increased significantly in recent years, reaching 77,000 people, and in France, 33,000.

Eurostat does not report data for Greece, where Albanian citizens are at levels comparable to Italy. Adding Greece, the Albanian population living in the EU countries is calculated at about 1 million, or 4.2% of the total number of citizens who are not of EU origin, but live in one of the European Union states. This would rank Albania in fourth place among all countries in the world, after Morocco, Turkey, Syria and China (Monitor's note).

Immigration is an unstoppable phenomenon that occurs in all countries of the world. However, the proportions with which it continues in Albania are extremely high, for the size of the country, which is also shown by the fact that Albanians are in similar numbers in the EU to countries that have a population that exceeds 1 billion people.

In recent years, the high rates of immigration, especially of young people, are clearly affecting the labor market, consumption, while in the longer term the consequences will be greater in the productivity of the economy and the pension scheme.

(Source: Monitor)