Only 8% of the European average/ Pensions, Albania takes steps back in convergence with the EU

2025-10-16 07:14:00, Ekonomi CNA

Only 8% of the European average/ Pensions, Albania takes steps back in

Albania is aiming to join the European Union by 2030. It takes decades to achieve EU standards in most areas, but in some, such as pensions, Albania is taking steps backward.

Average pensions in Albania are falling compared to the EU average, according to the Vienna Institute for International Studies. This means that pensions in the EU have increased at a higher rate than in Albania in recent years, further deepening the gap, instead of narrowing it.

Vienna experts calculated that the average pension in Albania was 8% of the European average in 2022, a difference that shows the large social and economic gap that Albanian citizens face in old age.

At the beginning of the decade, in 2010, Albanian pensions were 7.5% of the EU average, a very low level compared to European standards. Over the following years there was a steady increase, reaching a peak in 2018, when Albanian pensions reached about 9.3% of the EU average. This was the most favorable moment during 2010-2022.

After 2018, the trend changed significantly, as in 2019-2020 the average pension in our country dropped to 7.7% of the EU level. In 2022, there is a slight recovery, rising to 8% of the EU average.

While over the past decade there was a steady increase between the average pension in Albania and the average pension in the EU, the trend turned downward after the pandemic.

This regression is mainly related to the low level of state revenues for the social security system, high informality in the labor market and the lack of mechanisms that increase pensions according to the real cost of living. Experts warn that without deep structural reforms in pension financing, the gap with the EU will continue to deepen.

People over 60 years old made up 29.2% of the total population as of January 1 this year, up from 15.4% in 2011.

While the overall population is declining by about 15% between the 2011 and 2023 censuses, the number of people of retirement age is increasing, further increasing the pressure on the social security scheme in the long term.

INSTAT reported that the population over 60 years old reached over 691 thousand people on January 1, 2025, or 54 percent more than in 2011.

Economic experts suggest that improving incomes for retirees is done by increasing the number of contributors to social security, improving the administration of pension funds, and increasing pensions at the pace of average wages, as some countries in the region have done./ Monitor