Eurostat: After the pandemic, at least 180 thousand people have fled Albania in 4 years (excluding Greece)

2026-02-27 14:56:00, Sociale CNA

Eurostat: After the pandemic, at least 180 thousand people have fled Albania in

Around 44,000 Albanians emigrated to European Union countries in 2024, according to data released today by Eurostat, in EU immigration statistics.

The trend has decreased compared to the period 2022-2023, when the highest immigration rates of the last decade were observed, with around 50 thousand people per year respectively, but the rates still remain higher compared to before the pandemic, with the exception of 2015, which was also the year with a record number of asylum applications and which was the beginning of a new cycle of immigration in the country. It should be noted that these data do not include Greece, which remains a major destination for immigrants.

Since 2010, 460 thousand new immigrants from Albania have been registered in European Union countries, indicating a new massive cycle of emigration, in relation to the country's population, which has now dropped to 2.36 thousand inhabitants, from 2.8 million inhabitants in the 2011 Census.

After the pandemic alone, in 4 years, for the period 2021-2024, at least 180 thousand people have fled the country, and this does not include data from Greece or the United Kingdom, with the latter seeing a wave of departures that peaked in 2022.

According to Eurostat, the main destination in 2024 was Italy, with nearly 28 thousand immigrants in 2024, down from 29-30 thousand the previous two years.

In second place is Germany, which in recent years has become a magnet for professionals, mainly doctors, nurses and information technology specialists, with nearly 12,000 immigrants registered in 2024.

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According to Eurostat, in 2024, around 4.2 million migrants arrived in the EU from outside the EU, while 1.5 million people previously living in a member state moved to another EU country. These figures do not include refugees from Ukraine under temporary protection for some countries. On the other hand, around 3.2 million people migrated to another EU country or outside. Of these, around 1.6 million were reported to have left an EU country to migrate to countries outside the EU.

By comparison, in 2023, an estimated 4.4 million migrants arrived in the EU from outside the EU and 1.5 million people living in one member state moved to another EU country. In the same year, an estimated 1.5 million people emigrated from the EU to outside the EU.

In almost all EU countries, the number of immigrants arriving from outside the EU in 2024 was higher than the number of immigrants coming from other EU countries. The only exceptions were Luxembourg (where 85.5% of immigrants came from other EU countries) and Romania (56.0%).

The highest percentages of immigrants from countries outside the EU were recorded in the Czech Republic (87.0%), Italy (86.2%) and Spain (84.5%)./ Monitor

Eurostat: After the pandemic, at least 180 thousand people have fled Albania in