Life expectancy in Albania has been constantly increasing in recent decades, except for the pandemic year 2020, which significantly affected this indicator due to the unusual mortality rate it created in the population. 

Life expectancy specifics vary significantly across counties, according to INSTAT. In 2021, the county with the highest life expectancy at birth for men was Kukes, with 77.4 years, while the county with the lowest indicator was Gjirokastra, with 70.0 years. 

In the same year, the county with the highest life expectancy at birth for women was Tirana, with 81.6 years, while the county with the lowest indicator was Gjirokastra, with 74.2 years. 

In 2021, life expectancy at birth in Albania for the entire population was 76.5 years, 74.4 years for men and 78.7 years for women. This means that women are expected to live nearly 4 years longer than men. 

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%. 

An Albanian in 2020 lived an average of 77.3 years, with a decrease from 2018 by about 3.3 months as a result of the increase in deaths at a young age from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Historical data on life expectancy in the last 70 years shows that if 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. The population in Albania has changed over the last 30 years. 

This is, 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. 

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.