Where Is Slovenia? Understanding Its Geographical Location

Albania and Austria are two countries in Europe with a history of diplomatic relations. Several countries lie between them, including Serbia and Montenegro, which share borders with Albania, and Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, which lie between Serbia and Austria.

What countries border Albania?

Albania is a country in Southeast Europe, located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula on the Strait of Otranto, the southern entrance to the Adriatic Sea. It is bordered by several countries and bodies of water.

To the northwest of Albania lies Montenegro, while Kosovo can be found to the northeast. North Macedonia is to the east of Albania, and Greece is to the south. Additionally, Albania has a coastline along the Adriatic Sea to the west and the Ionian Sea to the southwest.

The country has a diverse landscape, with mountain ranges such as the Albanian Alps in the north and the Korab Mountains in the east. The Lake of Shkodër in the northwest is the largest lake in Southern Europe, while the Lake of Ohrid in the southeast is one of the world's oldest continuously existing lakes.

Albania has a rich history and has been influenced by various civilisations throughout the centuries, including the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. The country declared its independence in 1912, and its capital city is Tirana.

What is the capital of Albania?

Tirana is the capital of Albania and also its largest city. It is located in the centre of the country, surrounded by mountains and hills, with the Dajti Mountain to the east and a valley to the northwest, overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Tirana is Albania's economic, cultural, and political centre, and the seat of power of the Government of Albania. It is home to the official residences of the President and Prime Minister of Albania, as well as the Parliament of Albania.

Tirana was founded in 1614 by Ottoman Albanian general Sylejman Pasha Bargjini and has been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age. It was likely the core of the Illyrian Kingdom of the Taulantii in Classical Antiquity. The city was fairly unimportant until the 20th century, when it was proclaimed Albania's capital after the country gained independence in 1912.

Tirana is classified as a gamma-world-city and is the most important economic, financial, political, and trade centre in Albania. It is the heart of the country's economy, hosting thousands of companies belonging to local and international investors. The city's economy is primarily driven by the service sector, which contributes 68.5% of its revenue.

Tirana is also a cultural hub, with five well-preserved traditional houses, 56 cultural monuments, and eight public libraries. It is home to a mixture of architectural styles, reflecting the various influential periods in its history. The city has several ancient buildings, including the Tirana Mosaic, believed to have been built by the Romans during the third century.

Tirana is Albania's most populous city, with over 800,000 residents, and its inhabitants belong to various ethnicities. The city has a humid subtropical climate and is the eighth sunniest in Europe, receiving approximately 2,500 hours of sunshine per year.

What is the population of Albania?

Albania's population has been declining since 1990, with lower fertility rates and increased emigration being the primary factors contributing to this decrease. The country's resident population, as of the 2023 Population and Housing Census, is 2.4 million people, a decrease of about 420,000 residents compared to the 2011 census. The population of Albania as of Friday, 31 January 2025, is 2,779,845, with a population density of 101 per square kilometre.

The ethnic composition of Albania is fairly homogeneous, with ethnic Albanians forming 91% of the total population. The country also recognises nine national minorities, including Aromanians, Balkan Egyptians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Roma. In addition, Albania has witnessed the settlement of foreign expats, such as Italians, Chinese, Turks, and Americans. As of 2021, there were approximately 15,000 foreigners residing in the country, constituting 0.5% of the population.

Albania's population is predominantly urban, with 70.3% of people living in cities as of 2025. The median age is 37.3 years, and the average age is 42.5 years, as of the 2023 census. The sex ratio is 98.2, with more males than females at younger ages and a reversal in the trend after 40 years of age due to longer life expectancies among women.

The total fertility rate in Albania is one of the lowest in the world at 1.70 children per mother. Social factors influencing fertility rates include cultural norms, education levels, religion, use of contraceptive methods, abortion, migration, and economic considerations. The country has a relatively high life expectancy, with males expected to live 77.3 years and females 80.9 years, as of 2022.

Albania's population growth and decline have been influenced by various factors throughout history, including independence, world wars, government policies, and economic conditions. The country experienced its highest population growth in Europe before the collapse of communism, followed by a shift to population decline due to emigration and fertility decline.

What is the official language of Albania?

Albania is a country in the Balkans with a rich history of foreign rule and cultural exchange. Due to its strategic position on the Adriatic Sea, it has been host to many empires, nationalities, and cultures throughout its existence. As a result, the country's official language, Albanian, has adopted words from various languages, including Greek, Italian, Latin, Turkish, and Slavic tongues.

Known as "shqip" or "shqipe" by Albanians, the Albanian language is of particular interest to linguists as it is the only surviving member of its branch of the Indo-European language family. Descended from the extinct Illyrian tongue, Albanian has two principal dialects: Gheg and Tosk. The former is spoken north of the Shkumbin River, which bisects the country, while the latter is spoken in the south. While there are variations within these dialects, speakers of the two can understand each other with no difficulty.

The Tosk dialect forms the basis of Standard Albanian and is considered the language's prestige dialect. It is spoken by the majority of the population, who identify as Tosks, an ethnographic group in the country's south. On the other hand, the Gheg dialect is spoken by a subgroup of Albanians known as Ghegs, who reside in northern and central Albania. While Gheg is widely spoken, it does not hold official status as a written language in any country. As a result, publications in neighbouring countries with significant Gheg-speaking populations, such as Kosovo and North Macedonia, are typically printed in Standard Albanian, which is based on Tosk.

In addition to the two primary dialects, there are several other notable varieties of Albanian, all of which are sub-dialects of Tosk. These include Lab, Cham, Arbëresh (spoken in Italy), and Arvanitika or Arvanitic (spoken in southern Greece). The traditional border between the Tosk and Gheg dialects is the Shkumbin River, which winds its way through central Albania.

While Albanian is the official and most widely spoken language in the country, several minority languages are also present due to Albania's diverse ethnic makeup. These include Greek, Macedonian, Romani, Aromanian (or Vlach), and Serbo-Croatian, which is spoken near the country's northern border with former Yugoslavian countries. Additionally, due to the large Albanian diaspora and the emphasis on foreign language education, many Albanians are polyglots, with Italian, English, French, German, and other languages being commonly spoken in the country.

What is the currency of Albania?

The currency of Albania is the lek, or leke (the plural form). The currency code for the lek is L or ALL. The lek was introduced in February 1926 as the country's first official currency.

Before 1926, Albania had no currency and adhered to a gold standard for the fixation of commercial values. During the First World War, the Ottoman Turkish piastre was in full circulation. During the occupation of Albania by Austria-Hungary, the population was made to use paper notes of the Austro-Hungarian krone. However, these transactions were limited to exchanges between Albanians and the occupiers, and most of the population continued to use gold and silver piastre or bartered instead.

The lek is subdivided into 100 qintars (the singular form is qindarkë). The word qindarkë comes from the Albanian word qind, meaning "one hundred", or from the Arabic word qintār, meaning "hundredweight".

The naming of the currency as "lek" has two possible origins. One is that it is named after Alexander the Great, whose name is often shortened to Leka in Albanian. The other is that it is named after Lekë Dukagjini, which is considered the official reason based on parliamentary discussions in the Parliament of Albania in 1922.

The lek has been through several iterations since its introduction, including being pegged to the gold standard from 1926-1939, and being replaced by the Italian lira during the Italian invasion of Albania.

Today, the lek is the official currency of Albania, and using it for transactions typically results in better prices than foreign currencies, although euros and dollars may be accepted in some places. The euro, US dollar, and British pound are the most commonly accepted foreign currencies for exchange in Albania.

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