Albania is aging, but 10,000 Albanian children were born in Italy for one year

According to the latest ISTAT data, out of 458,151 children born during 2017 in Italy, 9,823 have at least one Albanian parent.

These figures are made public by the latest report published by the Italian Statistics Institute. While in Italy it is about 10,000 births, more than 30,000 births are registered in Albania in the same year.

As the level of fertility suffers worldwide, a phenomenon for which neither Albania has been excluded, statistics show that in Italy where the level of Albanian immigration is high, births have increased.

The Italian Statistics Institute has published a concluding report for 2017, in which it stresses that children's births from at least one Albanian parent have grown. According to the figures, they have at least one Albanian parent, 9,823 newborns (during 2016, 9,882 children with at least one Albanian parent).

In the most detail, the report shows that 7,273 newborn children have both parents (seven,278 children in 2016 and 7,830 in 2015), 698 have Albanian father and Italian mothers (c. 921 cases in 2016 and 872 in 2015), and 1,852 have Italian mother and father (were 1,683 born in 2016 and 1,427 in 2015).

As noted by the figures, births are increasing by mixed couples, where the mother is Albanian and the Italian father. It is thought that many of these couples are actually formed by Albanians, but one of them has already received Italian citizenship.

Italian media also stress that there may be a higher number of Albanian newborns in Italy, but they are not identified by statistics as such, as children may be born from Albanian couples, who have already won both Italian citizenship.

In Italy, according to data from the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, referring to the beginning of 2018, there were about 44,000 Albanian immigrants with regular residence permits. While there are another 148 thousand who have received Italian citizenship since 2002 - a total of about 590. In total, according to Monitor estimates in 2017, there were 17 births for 1,000 Albanians in Italy.

According to INSTAT in Albania at the latest, 30,869 children were born in 2017, marking a drop of 2.7 %, compared to a year ago. The reasons, according to experts, are thought to be related to two phenomena: high migration and the decline of female fertility, accompanied by the gradual aging of the population. Estimated of 1,000 residents, the birth rate in 2017 was 10.5, down by nearly 40% from Albanians living in Italy.