Only one person lives in 12% of habitable houses, or 91 thousand of them

2024-08-19 08:59:11, Aktualitet CNA

The population of Albania has decreased rapidly in the last three decades.

In 1990, the country's population was about 3.2 million inhabitants, while according to the 2023 census data, it was only 2.4 million inhabitants, with a 25% decrease from the fall of communism. Also, the structure of the family has suffered a significant decrease in the number of members.

In 2023, the census data revealed that over 12% of habitable dwellings had only one inhabitant.

In total, there are about 91,000 dwellings in which a single person lives in the entire country. These apartments are mainly owned by elderly people, with children in emigration and when one of the spouses has passed away.

From the stock of habitable units, about 202.8 thousand apartments are inhabited by only two people. Statistics experts show that the high number of houses inhabited by one person or only two people indicates the high flow of emigration of young people who have left their parents alone.

People living alone in apartments are usually elderly people over 65 years old. The 2023 census data reported that across the country, about 64,000 people over 60 lived alone.

Of the 103,000 people who lived alone, 62.5 percent of them were 60 years old or older (64,375 people).

The most frequent family nuclei consisted of married or cohabiting couples with children, 52.2 percent, followed by married or cohabiting couples without children, 37.5 percent, while single parents with children accounted for only 10.3 per hundred of them.

As the 2023 Census data show, almost half of the families in the country have 2 or less people. This shows a big shift from the traditional structure of Albanian families with many members where young people dominate.

The average size of family units is 3.2 members in the 2023 Census, compared to 3.9 members for the 2011 Census. About one in four or 24.3 percent have as a reference person a woman, the person who generally makes the main decisions and is recognized as such by all its members.

The majority of families, 82.5 percent are owners of the apartment where they live, 11.4 percent own solar panels, 8.7 percentage points more, compared to the 2011 Census, while ordinary unoccupied dwellings occupy 32.9 percent of the total.

2023 Census data show that one in five individuals (19.7 percent) are 65 or older, compared to one in nine individuals (11.3 percent) in the 2011 Census and 7.5 percent in the of 2001./ Monitor.al