Pop. of Albania Shrinks Over 7 Percent in Decade; Heavy Emigration, Decrease in Births Are Causes

The Balkan Insight website reports today (December 23, 2011) that -- according to the results of the 2011 census -- the population of Albania is 2,831,741 or 7.7 percent down from what it was 10 years ago.

"Large-scale emigration and fertility decline are the presumed main causes of the observed population decrease," the report released today by the National Institute of Statistics said.

But an estimated 1.4 million Albanians have migrated in the last 20 years, since the country emerged from the communist regime of Enver Hoxha in 1991 and borders opened.

The population of Albania in 2001 -- when the last census was carried out -- was 3,069,275.

Albania is considered to be the poorest country in all of Europe by most experts of Europe's economy.