Albania, third in Europe for high number of cafes, exceeds Italy's Spain

Young people are leaving, the population is dropping, the number of grasses is dropping, but they are still almost full of them all day long, making us one of the most time (and money) countries in cafes.

Although the bar- coffee business is no longer the same, Albania continues to be one of the highest number of coffee bars in terms of population.

Eurostat data, which coincides with INSTAT, revealed that in 2020 in Albania there were 15,577 subjects exercising activity in “Drinking and food service”

According to the population, the country has 547 bar-restorates for 100,000 people.

According to Eurostat data for the number of subjects in the activity of “food and drink services” and relevant populations, processed by Monitor, Portugal is the first in Europe for the high number of bars and restaurants in relation to the population.

In Portugal there are a total of about 74 thousand bars for a population of 10.3 million, or 718 bars for 100,000 people.

The second is Greece, which has that indicator of 709.

There are more bars and restaurants in Albania and compared to countries that are popular tourist destinations such as Spain (535), or Italy (451).

Chekhia (450), Cyprus (428), Croatia (425) follow the list. According to the European Union average (332), there are nearly twice as many bars and restaurants in Albania. (See chart: The number of businesses in the activities of beverages and foods in relation to the population.

In Germany and Nordic countries, you need to use “to reduce the amount of quality to find a bar, or restaurant, as there are less than 200 of these for 100,000 people.

Region holds “record” from the bottom

If you go to other countries in the region, there is very little chance of finding as many bars as in Albania, especially in Serbia. There are only 2764 bars in Serbia, according to Eurostat, or only 40 such subjects for 100,000 people, the lowest in Europe. In northern Macedonia the indicator is 199.5, in Bosnia 207, while data is lacking for Montenegro and Kosovo.

Spending 400m euros a year

Other INSTAT data revealed earlier that the annual circulation of bars and restaurants in 2021 in the country was 47.2 billion dollars, or about 400m euros, that local consumers or foreign tourists have spent on bars and restaurants.

By 2020, the revenues of this event increased by 17%, but they remained 9% lower than before pandemic. The data shows that by 2019 the costs at bars and restaurants had risen rapidly, peaking at $52 billion (U.S.) in 2019.

Not only the costs of citizens for bars and restaurants have been lowered. The bar business doesn't look so attractive anymore.

INSTAT's data shows that the number of companies operating in food accommodation has been in constant decline since 2016, when it reached nearly 19 thousand. In that period, Albania was ranked among the first in Europe for the high number of bars, in relation to the population.