Albania - Republic of Albania

Missions teams in Albania Trevor & Kay Weavers

geography
Area 28,748 sq km.
A mountainous Balkan state on the Adriatic Sea, adjoining Yugoslavia (Montenegro and Kosovo/Serbia), Macedonia and Greece.

capital
Tirana 275,000. Unofficially the population is nearer 500,000.
Urbanites 48%.

population
2000    3,113,434
2010    3,346,892
2025    3,819,763

Over 500,000 Albanians fled or emigrated from the country in 1991-2000, reducing the above figures.
A further 300,000 Kosovar refugees entered Albania in 1998/99.

peoples
Albanian 91.5% . Tosk in south; Gheg in north.
Other 8.5%.
Greek 85,000; Roma (Gypsy) 80,000+; Vlach (Arumun) 40,000; Macedonian (Pataree and Gorani Muslim) 15,000.

literacy
92%

language
Official Language: Albanian
All Languages: 6.
Languages with Scriptures: 3Bi 1NT 1por 1w.i.p.

religion
No religion was allowed to exist in Communist Albania.
The ban was lifted in 1990, but no legal provision for religious freedom was made until 1998.
The very existence of Evangelicals and other faiths is often portrayed by Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics as a disturbance to social custom.

Religions Christian Muslim Non-Religious/other Baha'i Jewish

Population % 41.48 38.79 19.54 0.18 0.01

Over 50% of the population is culturally Muslim, but superstition and folk Islam are strong.


Country profiles supplied courtesy of Operation World. http://www.gmi.org/ow/