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| Graph of the dynamics of the population of Albania from 1960 to 2022: source: INSTAT |
Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Albania are the four countries that have recorded the largest decrease in their population in percentage compared to the beginning of the 1990s (the Baltic countries are not included).
The data have been published today by Eurostat, in the report on the progress of the population of Europe since the 1960s, on the occasion of World Population Day.
According to Eurostat, in 2022, the population of Albania decreased to 2.79 million inhabitants, which is the lowest level since 1982. Compared to the early 90s, the population has shrunk by almost 15%.
From 1960, when Eurostat reports the data, Albania's population doubled, peaking in 1991 with nearly 3.3 million inhabitants. Then, the contraction began, influenced first by high immigration and then by both the return of the immigration cycle and the gradual aging of the population, influenced by both immigration and the number of births.
In 2020-2021, the population decline accelerated also due to the consequences of COVID, which significantly increased mortality in the country,
The European record for population decline since the early 1990s is held by Bulgaria, with -21.1, followed by Croatia (-18.9) and Romania (-17.9).
The population of Serbia, in relation to the year 1995 (when it separated from Montenegro), has decreased by almost 11%, while that of Montenegro by 2.4% for the same period.
The population of North Macedonia results in a slight contraction of less than 3%, but for a long time there has been a debate in this country regarding the population census and its real number.
The population of Kosovo is also shrinking, which has been reduced by 10.2%, compared to 2003, when the data were reported for the first time.
The trend of Europe
According to Eurostat, over a longer period, the population of the EU increased from 354.5 million in 1960 to 446.8 million on 1 January 2022, an increase of 92.3 million people. The rate of population growth has gradually slowed in recent decades: for example, the EU's population grew by an average of around 0.7 million people per year over the period 2005-2022, compared to an average increase of around 3.0 million people per year during the 1960s.