Albania

EuropeCapital city: TiraneCapital metro: TiranaPrime Minister: Edi RamaPresident: Bajram Begaj
2026 population
2.3M
Rank #149 globally
Area
29k km² (11k sq mi)
Metros tracked
19
78% of population in metros
Composite score
5.4
Rank #126 globally

population: Official estimate (1 Jan 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 19 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography19 metros

Albania metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
19 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 19 tracked metros
19 metros
🗂️ Counties

12 entries listed under Albania. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

12 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Albanian
Government
Parliamentary system
Legislature
Parliament of Albania
Demonym
Albanian
Time zone
UTC+01:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+355
Internet TLD
.al
ISO 3166
AL
Established
1912
Highest point
Korab (2,764 m (9,068 ft))
National anthem
Himni i Flamurit

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentUpper middle income
Human Dev. Index
#70 / 191
0.810
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#111 / 193
$30.5B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#74 / 193
$13.0k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#73 / 190
$28.2k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#74 / 192
$12.1k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#42 / 194
79.8 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
36.3 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#114 / 194
59%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
-1.2%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#96 / 193
88/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#138 / 193
1.7%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#83 / 175
0.59
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#28 / 166
29.4
World Bank · 2020
Internet users
#77 / 193
86%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#62 / 185
2.1%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#72 / 192
1.6 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#7 / 186
100%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations2 full memberships

Security

Political & Economic

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History20 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Other

Bajram Begaj✦ Current

2022Present

President

Tenure: 3y 11m 9d

Ilir Meta

20172022

President

Tenure: 5y 0d

Republic of Albania

Edi Rama✦ Current

2013Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 12y 9m 18d

Bujar Nishani

20122017

President

Tenure: 5y 0d

Bamir Topi

20072012

President

Tenure: 5y 0d

Sali Berisha

20052013

Prime Minister

Tenure: 8y 4d

Fatos Nano

20022005

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 1m 11d

Alfred Moisiu

20022007

President

Tenure: 5y 0d

Ilir Meta

19992002

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 3m 0d

Fatos Nano

19971998

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 2m 8d

Rexhep Meidani

19972002

President

Tenure: 5y 0d

Aleksandër Meksi

19921997

Prime Minister

Tenure: 5y 2m 28d

Sali Berisha

19921997

President

Tenure: 5y 3m 15d

Ramiz Alia

19911992

President

Tenure: 11m 10d

People’s Socialist Republic of Albania

Ramiz Alia

19851991

First Secretary

Tenure: 6y 17d

⚠️ Enver Hoxha

19441985

First Secretary

Tenure: 40y 4m 13d

Kingdom of Albania

👑 Zog I

19281939

Monarch

Tenure: 10y 7m 6d

Albanian Republic

Ahmet Zogu

19251928

President

Tenure: 3y 7m 1d

Principality of Albania

👑 Wilhelm of Wied

19141914

Prince

Tenure: 5m 27d

Provisional Government

Ismail Qemali

19121914

Chairman

Tenure: 1y 1m 18d
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#120 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Albania · share of world power, 1914–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19452 interstate wars · click to expand

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
2.8m
#143 in the world
Since 1800
7.03×
from 400k
Past its peak
−14.3%
peaked at 3.3m in 1991
Share of world
0.04%
0.04% in 1800
821k1.6m2.5m3.3m18001850190019502000
Albania · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Albania is past its peak, which is less unusual than it sounds: the two lines here can point in opposite directions, and for most of Europe and East Asia they now both point down.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Albania: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak
1991
3.3m; already passed
2050
2.2m
95% band 1.4m to 3.3m
2100
1.2m
95% band 286k to 5.7m
2100 against 2025
0.43×
median falling from 2024
Deaths outnumber births
from 2029
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
1.5m3.0m4.5m6.0m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
49k born · 29k died · +7k net migration
TFR 6.17 · life expectancy 44.5 · median age 19.6
1960
68k born · 26k died · +14k net migration
TFR 6.38 · life expectancy 56.4 · median age 18.8
1970
73k born · 19k died · +92 net migration
TFR 5.16 · life expectancy 65.2 · median age 18.0
1980
73k born · 18k died · -601 net migration
TFR 3.59 · life expectancy 69.9 · median age 20.1
1990
85k born · 18k died · -60k net migration
TFR 3.01 · life expectancy 72.7 · median age 22.9
2000
55k born · 18k died · -61k net migration
TFR 2.22 · life expectancy 74.8 · median age 26.2
2010
36k born · 18k died · -52k net migration
TFR 1.65 · life expectancy 78.4 · median age 31.6
2020
30k born · 26k died · -17k net migration
TFR 1.37 · life expectancy 77.8 · median age 35.1
Show all 16 decades
2030
24k born · 25k died · -18k net migration
TFR 1.32 · life expectancy 80.8 · median age 40.1
2040
18k born · 29k died · -11k net migration
TFR 1.37 · life expectancy 82.5 · median age 45.9
2050
16k born · 31k died · -7k net migration
TFR 1.40 · life expectancy 84.1 · median age 51.1
2060
13k born · 29k died · -5k net migration
TFR 1.43 · life expectancy 85.5 · median age 54.6
2070
10k born · 29k died · -3k net migration
TFR 1.46 · life expectancy 86.7 · median age 57.0
2080
9k born · 31k died · -1k net migration
TFR 1.47 · life expectancy 87.8 · median age 59.1
2090
8k born · 28k died · -392 net migration
TFR 1.48 · life expectancy 88.9 · median age 58.9
2100
7k born · 23k died · -128 net migration
TFR 1.49 · life expectancy 90.0 · median age 57.6

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

💰 Billionaires1 · $1.9B combined · click to expand
DiversifiedDiversified

Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.

🏆 National Teams

Albania on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.