ANALYSIS / Cities with the most cars per resident: Korça, Pogradec with fewer cars!

Residents of the country’s main cities, especially in Tirana and Durrës, spend a lot of time, but also fuel, in traffic.

A “Monitor” survey last year, in which most of the respondents were from the capital, found that 70% of car users spent more than one hour in traffic every day.

41% of respondents who said they were car users stated that they spent 1–2 hours in traffic per day. 29% said they spent more than two hours sitting in their vehicle without moving.

Stuck in traffic, 70% of respondents spend more than one hour every day.

The number of vehicles circulating in the country has increased rapidly in recent years, surpassing for the first time the figure of 1 million in 2025 (1,047,427), of which more than 80% are passenger cars.

In relation to the population, Albania has a total of 443 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, which despite the increase remains among the lowest levels in Europe. For example, only for passenger cars, Albania had 328 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024, compared with the European average of 578.

So which cities are the most congested with vehicles?

“Monitor” processed data on the total number of vehicles registered by municipalities, based on figures from the General Directorate of Road Transport for the 61 municipalities in the country, in relation to the respective population of these municipalities, according to the 2023 Census by INSTAT.

The municipality with the highest number of vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants is Saranda. The coastal city has 22.6 thousand residents, while it has 16.2 thousand registered vehicles, or 716 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants. This concentration of vehicles is 61% higher than the national average. In summer, traffic in Saranda is almost paralyzed, not only because of residents but also due to the influx of tourists and the city’s narrow streets.

Second is the coastal city of Durrës, with 584 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, or 32% more than the national average. In Durrës, traffic is present not only during the tourist season but throughout the year, while parking, except at the entrance where the new project built by the municipality is located, remains extremely difficult.

Kurbin ranks third, with 557 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants.

The list is followed by another coastal city, Vlora, with 551 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants.

Tirana, where it is often faster to reach a destination on foot than by vehicle, ranks fifth, where there is one vehicle for every two residents (533). Another impossible, or very expensive mission in the capital is parking.

In the Monitor survey, 84% of users said they always encounter problems finding a place to leave their vehicle. Average monthly parking costs are exceeding 10,000 lek per month. Even buying an apartment is often “worthless” if you do not have a parking space, and if you have to buy one it can cost up to 60 or 80 thousand euros, as much as you could once buy a large house for.

A parking space worth as much as a house, the “golden” business in Tirana.

The large municipalities where residents have fewer cars are Korça, Berat, Dibra, Përmet and Pogradec, with fewer than 300 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants.

“KORÇA BOOM”