Most of Albania's counties, 9 out of 12 in total, are suffering population decline from internal emigration, in addition to fleeing abroad and declining births.

INSTAT reported that in 2022 migration within Albania has a significant impact on the population of administrative units.

In 2022, at the district level, only Tirana, Durrës and Vlora had a positive net internal migration (more arrivals than departures), respectively with 7,366 Tirana, 1,182 Durrës and 239 Vlora (arriving more than leaving away).

According to official INSTAT data, all other counties (Berati, Dibra, Elbasani, Fieri, Gjirokastra, Korça, Kukësi, Lezha, Shkodra,) had negative net internal migration during 2022.

In particular, the counties of Dibra and Elbasan with -1.822 and -1.283 respectively.

Another indicator, the gross coefficient of net internal migration, shows the impact that internal migration has on the population of particular counties. Tirana, Durrës and Vlora were the only counties with a positive net internal migration gross coefficient, with an increase of 8.0 for Tirana and 4.1 for Durrës and 1.3 for Vlora (persons per thousand inhabitants) respectively.

Districts of Dibra and Gjirokastra had the lowest levels of the gross coefficient of net internal migration, respectively with -16.9 and -12.1 followed by the district of Kukes with -10.4 (persons per thousand inhabitants) respectively.

In 2022, the municipality with the highest net internal migration was Tirana, with a value of 6,004 arrivals more than departures, while the municipality with the lowest net internal migration was Dibra, with 744 departures more than arrival.

Albania's population has been decreasing since 2001, although not all counties have followed this trend.

Average population of Albania decreased from 2,811,666 inhabitants in 2021 to 2,777,689 inhabitants in 2022. In 2022, the county with the largest average population in Albania was Tirana with 922,386 inhabitants, followed by the county of Durrës with 290,561 inhabitants . At the same time, the two counties with the smallest average population in 2022 were Gjirokastra and Kukësi, respectively with 54,296 and 72,133 inhabitants.

During the year 2022, only the population of Tirana county has increased, while all other counties had a negative rate of population growth.

District of Tirana had the highest level of average population growth during 2022, as it increased by 0.7% compared to 2021. On the other hand, the district with the lowest rate of average population growth was that of Gjirokastra , with -4.2%, during the year 2022.

(Source: Monitor)