Business and engineering remain among the most preferred fields of study for Albanian students who graduated during the 2023-2024 academic year, according to official data from the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT).

The decline in the young population is significantly reducing the education sector and, consequently, the future workforce. Official INSTAT data on graduations show that in the academic year 2023-2024, the number of diplomas received at all levels of education fell by 1% compared to the academic year 2022-2023.

The largest decrease was in diplomas in 9-year education (primary education) due to the strongest reduction in the population in this age group from low birth rates and high emigration at young ages in the last decade.

In the 2023-24 school year, 82,712 pupils and students graduated from formal education, with an annual decrease of 1%.

At this educational level, women dominate with 65.8% of graduates, while the most preferred field for them is “business, administration and law”, with 25.9% of graduates in this branch. On the other hand, men preferred the field of “engineering, production, and construction”, with 25.2% of graduates. In a 9-year education, out of 27,705 graduates, with an annual decrease of 2.7%.

In total, 33.5% of graduates completed 9-year education, 32.3% upper secondary education and 0.1% post-secondary, non-higher education.

26,729 students graduated from upper secondary education, marking a decrease of 1.3% compared to the previous year. Within this level, vocational education included 3,174 graduates, of whom 82.7% were male.

Meanwhile, only 85 people graduated from post-secondary, non-higher education. The main fields of this level were “real estate brokerage”, “diagnostics-management in car service”, and “design and fashion”.