“Depopulation is an alarm bell” / DP: Albania recorded the highest population decline in the region

Democratic Party MP Ledina Aliolli has stated that the country is facing a major crisis and that depopulation is destroying the economy, turning into a social wound.

Citing data published by Eurostat for 2025, where Albania recorded the highest population decline in the region at around -1.2%, Aliolli said that these figures are no longer just cold statistics in official reports, but alarm bells for Albania’s future.

Full statement:

Albania is being emptied every day, as young people leave and do not return.

This fact is not opposition political rhetoric, but a national alarm confirmed by state institutions such as INSTAT, by Eurostat, and by other international reports.

Today, our country is facing a deep demographic and social crisis, a silent wound that is affecting cities and villages, weakening the economy and threatening the very existence of our future as a nation.

Recent international reports and analyses on the Western Balkans clearly show that Albania continues to be among the countries most affected by emigration and population aging. According to analyses published for the region and cited by the World Bank, Albania has the highest net migration in the Western Balkans. Around 24,000 more people leave than return to the country.

Meanwhile, data published by Eurostat for 2025 show that Albania recorded the highest population decline in the region, with a decrease of around -1.2%, mainly influenced by emigration and the falling birth rate.

These are no longer just cold statistics in official reports. They are alarm bells for Albania’s future.

Even more concerning is the fact that the latest data from INSTAT show that Albania is once again entering negative natural population growth, recording more deaths than births.

This is the most dramatic indicator of a society that is losing its vital balance.

Every day, young people, students, professionals, doctors, nurses, engineers, farmers, and newly created young families are leaving. They are not leaving out of a desire for adventure. They are leaving because they no longer see security, meritocracy, and perspective in their own country.

They are leaving because they feel excluded from a system that does not reward knowledge, hard work, and honesty.

Albanians are leaving, the country is emptying, while the government continues to boast about its “successes.”

But reality cannot be hidden behind propaganda.

Today’s reality is schools without students.

Businesses that cannot find workers.

Elderly people left alone.

Parents saying goodbye to their children at the airport with tears in their eyes, painfully recalling Korçë’s “field of tears.”

Today, depopulation is no longer just a statistic.

It is Albania’s silent hemorrhage.

Particularly alarming remains the departure of young Albanian girls and women, a phenomenon that is directly affecting birth rates, young families, and the country’s social structure.

When young people leave, a country loses its creative energy.

When young girls and women leave, the very foundation of social renewal is damaged.

When the younger generation leaves, a nation loses hope.

The greatest irony of this government is that it counts the tourists entering Albania, while Albanians count the days until they can leave it.

For all these reasons, together with other opposition MPs, we have requested an urgent interpellation with Prime Minister Edi Rama regarding the demographic crisis, mass emigration, and the alarming departure of young people from Albania.

Albanians deserve answers.

What is the government doing to stop the massive departure of young people?

What is the concrete plan to restore hope?

How will the country cope tomorrow with the pension crisis and the shortage of workforce?

A government that loses its youth cannot speak about success.

The true measure of a normal country is not slogans and propaganda façades, but the people who choose to live, build families, and invest their future in their own homeland.

Albania cannot continue losing thousands of young people every year while the state behaves as if this is the most normal thing in the world.

A country that loses its younger generation has lost itself.

“KORÇA BOOM”