Fear - inspiring statistics: Albanians no longer bear children

During 2020, Albania resulted in the fifth country in Europe for the lowest fertility rate.

Affected by high immigration rates, Albania's population has entered a fast aging process, becoming a major problem for the country's sustainable economic development.

During 2020, according to Eurostat, Albania had only 1.32 live births per woman with a drop of 0.2 compared to 2019, leaving Malta, Spain, Italy and Macedonia behind.

In 2020, 4.07 million babies were born in the EU, continuing a downward trend that began in 2008 when 4.68 million children were born in the EU, while in Albania the decline trend has continued faster after 1990.

The total birth rate was 1,50 live births in the EU in 2020, a small decline from the last peak in 2016 (1.57), but still an increase compared to 2001 (1.43).

The highest rate of total fertility since the beginning of the comparable time series was 1.57 in 2008, 2010 and 2016. In the middle years, it fluctuates between 1.51 and 1.57.

In 2020, the EU member state with the highest degree of total fertility was France (1.83 live births per woman), followed by Romania (1.80), Czechia (1.71) and Denmark (1.68).

The percentage of foreign - born children differ significantly between the Member States. In 2020, 64% of Luxembourg-born children were born abroad, while in Cyprus the share was 39%. In Austria, Malta and Belgium, the percentage was about a third.

On the other side of the scale, nine countries had less than 10% of mothers born abroad, with the lowest percentages registered in Bulgaria, Slovakia (two 2%) and Lithuania (3%).

In our country, between 2011 and 2020 national births have dropped by 18%. Out of 34,285 babies born in 2011 in 2020 are born 28,075. Kukes County marked the country's biggest decline. During the last decade in Northeast Prefecture, fertility marked a decline of 37.8 percent.

After Kukes, the largest fertility decline in the past decade has marked the Berat District with 34.3%. Gjirokastra ranks third for the large birth decline of 32.2% and then Vlora with over 31% for the same period.

Otherwise, the lowest birth drop was Tirana and Durres, respectively, with -1.6 and -12.0%. These two circuits, although falling births, have positive natural growth of the population because of shifts from other circles toward them.

As a result of this situation, demographic developments are under way according to pessimistic scenarios of population projections.

According to the recent review of the period 2019-2031, in the pessimistic scenario the fertility index for a woman in 2019 was 1,36 the same as in the pessimistic scenario, but in the future the indicator could deteriorate beyond this scenario because indirect polls show that immigration in the last decade has been higher than expectations.

Eastern European countries experienced a decline in fertility during the 1990s and 2000s, where the Synthetic Ferition index (ISF) reached very low levels. The most extreme cases are those of Bulgaria (1,09 children per woman) and of the Czech Republic (1,13 children per woman) for the rest of Eastern European countries The SF reached the minimum, about 1.2 births per woman. Low fertility hypothesis in Albania thought i The SF will reach 1.22 in 2031, but real developments are showing that this level will be reached before this year.