In 2001 Albania’s population estimate was 3,510,484, resulting in an average density of 122 persons per sq km (316 per sq mi). More and more people have left rural areas for urban ones, particularly in the northern districts, such that in 1999 some 39 percent of the population lived in urban areas, compared to one-fifth in 1950. Albania has had one of the highest birth rates in Europe since the end of World War II (1939-1945) while the death rate has been one of the continent’s lowest. A high rate of population growth was state policy under the Communist regime, which viewed it as essential to Albania’s strength and prosperity.

There are an estimated seven million ethnic Albanians in the world, but fewer than half of them live within the boundaries of the Albanian state. The largest concentrations of Albanian-speaking people outside Albania are in the portions of Yugoslavia and Macedonia bordering the country; notable is the Kosovo region, where Albanians constitute a majority population. There are also large Albanian communities in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania. Since the 1970s, many Albanians have emigrated to western Europe and the United States. No country in Europe has a more homogeneous population than Albania, where non-Albanians account for only 2 percent of the total population. Greeks, concentrated mainly in the southeast, and Slavs, almost all of them Macedonians, constitute the largest minorities.