Births per 1,000 inhabitants/ Elderly people dominate in the South, the North is quickly emptying out

2024-05-24 08:12:00, Aktualitet CNA

Births per 1,000 inhabitants/ Elderly people dominate in the South, the North is

In the Southern counties the number of births per 1,000 inhabitants is much lower than in the Northern counties, a data that shows that the population in this region is older.

INSTAT data processed by Monitor show that in 2023 the district with the lowest number of births per 1000 inhabitants was Vlora with 5.7 births, followed by Korça with 6.3, Fieri with 6.9 and Gjirokastra with 7.1 births per 1000 inhabitants.

On the other hand, Dibra was the district with the highest number of births per 1000 inhabitants, at 9.6, followed by Kukësi with 9.3, Lezha with 8.8 and Tirana with 8.8.

The Southern regions of the country went through the peak stages of immigration earlier in the young ages. Fewer births in these counties indicate an older population and lower fertility rates (number of births per woman of reproductive age).

Comparing the births per 1000 inhabitants from 2019 and 2023, it can be seen that the Northern counties have the fastest decline, suggesting that this Region experienced during the last decade the peak of emigration, especially among young people.

From 2019-2023, Kukësi recorded the largest drop in births per 1000 inhabitants. In 2019, there were 14.4 births per 1000 inhabitants in this district, while in 2023 there were 9.3 births. In Kukës, the birth rate per 1000 inhabitants decreased by 5.1 percentage points, the highest in all districts.

After Kukës, Dibra has the largest decrease in births per 1000 inhabitants, from 13.5 births in 2019 to 9.6 in 2023. On the other hand, Berati and Lezha had the lowest decrease in births per 1000 inhabitants between 2019 and 2023, from 1.1 to 1.2 % points each.

Fertility rates have fallen steadily in these three decades, but in the last two years they have accelerated, signaling a worsening of the phenomenon in the years to come.

In 2023, only 22,210 babies were born across the country, the lowest level since 1934 when official annual data was reported. The data show that even in the second world war, more people were born in Albania than today. For example, in 1942, over 36,000 babies were born at a time when the number of women of reproductive age was lower than today.

In 1950, when the communist dictatorship regime was installed, 47,291 babies were born, according to data from the INSTAT archives, while the number of women of reproductive age (15-49 years old) was only 259,472 thousand. Just over 22,000 babies were born last year, while the number of women of reproductive age was 647,884 or three times higher than in the 1950s.

It is understandable that since the 50s and 60s Albania, like Europe, has evolved in terms of family planning, gender equality, the integration of women in the labor market, but in our country there is still a greater percentage of women who give birth less than they want. Demographers and sociologists are concerned that births in Albania have fallen beyond all predictions./Monitor