For years, the synthetic fertility index (the number of children born to each woman during the reproductive period) has been in constant and rapid decline. At the national level, the synthetic fertility index in Albania in recent years fell from 1.48 children per woman in 2017 to 1.32 in 2021. 

More detailed data from INSTAT show that the fertility index has large fluctuations in the regions of the country, so much so that the number of children born would not replace one parent. 

For example, in the district of Vlora, a woman of reproductive age gave birth to 0.9 children and in Korça to 1.15 children in 2021, while on the other side Dibra and Kukësi still have high IFS of 2.31 and 2.26 children per woman. 

For a population to reproduce itself, a woman of reproductive age must give birth to no less than 2.1 two children, but Albania since 2000, more than two decades ago, has had a lower number of births than this level. 

Southern regions of the country generally have lower birth rates due to mass immigration in the early years of transition. 

The cycle of immigration to the North is happening now, while the effects on the decline in fertility have already begun. 

Today's fertility indicators by counties show that after a few decades the population of the counties of Vlora, Gjirokastra and Korça will go towards extinction. 

The decline in births accompanied by mass emigration of young people is changing the structure of the population in favour of the third age. The country's natural surplus is going to negative levels. 

At the same time as the drop in births, the average age of Albanian women at birth has increased by almost a year, within a five-year period: from 28.4 in 2017 to 29.2 in 2021. 

In 2021, there were 864 fewer births than in 2020. In 2021, the district with the largest number of births was Tirana, with 9,437 births, while the district with the smallest number of births was Gjirokastra, with 451 births. 

In the same year, the municipality with the largest number of births was Tirana, with 7,310 births. In 2021, the gender ratio at birth in Albania was 108 male births for every 100 female births. The county with the highest gender ratio at birth was Durrës, with 116 male births for every 100 female births. 

The lowest value of the gender ratio at birth was recorded in Kukës, with almost 100 male births for every 100 female births. This is the county where the number of female births was almost equal to male births.

(Source: Monitor)