Young people are leaving Tirana, they have decreased by 22% between 2011-2023

2025-01-03 12:41:00, Sociale CNA

Tirana is the only county in the country that saw a slight population increase of 1.2% between 2011 and 2023, but on the other hand, it has suffered a sharp decline in the young population aged 15-19.

According to data from the 2023 Census, Tirana region had 158,288 people aged 15-29, from 202,000 in 2011, a decrease of almost 22%.

The growth of the general population and the sharp decline of young people indicate a change in the structure of the population in favor of an aging population. This indicator is a strong signal for the consumption trends of the most important district in the country.

For decades, Tirana is the district that has served as the center of gravity for the youth of the whole country, because it has the largest public university body in the country. Young people who come to study in Tirana usually choose not to return to their countries of origin and become residents of Tirana and be the biggest consumers of new housing.

During the last decade, the cost of living in Tirana has increased faster than the wages for young people, so young people from the districts are using the capital as a springboard to emigrate to other countries. Students are staying in Tirana to prepare the infrastructure, foreign language courses and qualifications as they try to leave with work contracts abroad.

The departure of young people has been like a pandemic for Albania in transition and this is the biggest damage caused especially to the perspective of development.

Cens 2023 data show that Gjirokastra, Fieri, Lezha and Elbasani had the largest decline in young people since 2011.

Gjirokastra, which is also the oldest county in the country, faced the strongest decline in the number of young people between the two censuses, with 55%.

In 2023, about 7 thousand people in the age group of 15-29 years old were counted in this county, from about 17 thousand that were in 2011. In the county of Fier, the decrease was 53.5%, bringing their number to 38 thousand in 2023 from 71 thousand that were in 2011. Lezha also had a decrease of 49 percent, followed by Elbasan in the same measure.

The rates of emigration of young people to Albania in the last 10 years exceed even countries that have experienced bloody wars, those living in extreme dictatorships and terribly poor countries.

Eurostat data show that from 2013 to 2023, 64,200 Albanians under the age of 18 applied for asylum in the countries of the European Union. In absolute value, this figure was the fifth in the world, but in relation to the population, Albania had the second highest rate of asylum seekers under the age of 18 in the EU, with 241 young people per 10,000 inhabitants, after Syria./ Monitor Magazine