Indirect data from INSTAT shows that the number of families in Albania is falling rapidly from year to year, mainly due to high emigration.
In the annual household budget survey, INSTAT reported that the number of households last year reached 765,551, or 3,412 homes less than in 2020.
Data shows that the number of families increased until 2018, but then the decline began. In 2019, there were almost 1,000 fewer families than in 2018, and in 2021, 7,100 families or 1% less than in 2018, when the highest number of families in the last decade was recorded.
After 2014, mass emigration of families spread through requests for economic asylum in EU countries, mainly in Germany and France. This year, a new emigration route to the UK via dinghy has seen thousands more people flee.
Also, family reunifications with emigrants who fled in the first decade of emigration are emptying the country more and more. This, coupled with a declining birth rate, poses a significant demographic risk for the future.
The geography of immigration in the last decade has also affected the counties with the highest standard of living, such as Tirana, Fieri and Durres, where the average family income is generally above the national average.
The population of Tirana District has decreased by 13.7%, or 102,000 people, during 2011-2019, but 77,000 people have migrated grouped into families. The survey revealed that Tirana has the highest emigration of family units compared to other counties. During the period, 10.3% of the district’s families emigrated.
In fifth place for high emigration comes Elbasan, where 12.5% of the resident population registered in 2011 immigrated, where 5.2% of them were grouped in families. In sixth place, the District of Kukës, which has lost 12.4% of its population to emigration during the decade, has more than 10,000 people.
