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Albania is a country in the south east corner of Europe.

Albania borders the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea.

The land is mountainous and hilly with flat land along the coast.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Albania, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 41 00N
Longitude - 20 00E

The capital of Albania is Tirana.

Albania is a parliamentary republic with a President as Head of State and a prime minister as head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Albania is the lek. Albania is not a member of the European Union but made a formal application to join in 2009. In 2014 it was granted candidate status which means the EU will now consider its application over the next few years. However in 2014, the EU stated it had no plans to expand in the next five years.

Albanian is the official language.

Check the weather in Tirana now.

This is the time in Tirana now



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The Albanian flag is red with a black two-headed eagle in the centre.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Albanian National Anthem called Hymn to the Flag. It was adopted in 1912. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

Around the flag united
With a desire and a reason
All vowing to him
To unite the word for the freedom

From the war the only one that gets away
Is that one that is born as a traitor
Who is a man is not scared
Dies, dies as a martyr

We will keep the arms in our hands
To protect our homeland in anywhere
Our rights we don’t share them
Here the enemies don’t have a place

The Lord Himself has said
That Nations vanish from the earth
But Albania will live
For her, for her we fight for

The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Albania is 27,398 sq kms which is the 33rd largest in Europe.

Albania has lakes, rivers and canals which total 1,350 sq kms.

Albania has boundaries with 4 countries

• Greece 212 kms
• Montenegro 186 kms
• North Macedonia 181 kms
• Kosovo 112 kms

Albania has a coastline of 362 kms which is the 20th longest in Europe.

The highest point in Albania is Maja e Korabit at 2,764 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Albania is 3.04 million people, making it the 29th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 1.54 million are females and 1.50 million are males.

A person from Albania is called an Albanian.

To be a citizen of Albania, one of your parents must be a citizen of Albania. It is not sufficient to be born in Albania. You have to live in Albania for 5 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Albania, by population are:-

• Tirana 374,801 people
• Durres 122,034
• Elbasan 100,903
• Vlore 89,546
• Shkoder 88,245

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



57.0% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Albania is 13.1 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Albania is 6.7 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 10.8 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 13.7 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 33.8 and for males is 31.2. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 23.4.

The elderly dependency ratio is 18.1. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 5.5. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Albania spends 5.5% of its total income on health care.

There are 1.15 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 2.6 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

21.7% of the population are estimated as obese.

84.3% of of the urban population and 81.8% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

95.5% of the urban population and 90.2% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Albania releases 4.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 37th highest in Europe.

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Albania spends 3.5% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Albania. Primary education is for four years until age 9 and secondary education must continue till 16 but can go on to 18/19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in the first week of September and finishes at the end of June. There is usually a 2 week break at Christmas and a week at Easter, and a one week break in the middle of the first term.

96.9% of females and 98.4% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

39.8% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 40.8% are unemployed while with males 39.3% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Albania is 1.09 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

17.3% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 4 paved airports in Albania, which is the 36th highest number in Europe.


There are 577 kilometres of railways in Albania, which is the 34th longest in Europe.


There are 18,000 kilometres of roads in Albania, which means Albania is in 35th place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 7 major national newspapers in Albania.

There are 3.40 million mobile phone users.

7% of the people have a fixed landline.



1.90 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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