33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

Produced by Euro-CIDES -FR- CAPTIVE/ JUST/2015/RDAP/AG/VICT/9243 Population 2,876,591 inhabitants (January 2017) Capital city Tirana (726,547 inhabitants) Other cities Durrës - Vlorë - Shkodër - Elbasan - Fier Total area 28,748 km² Languages Albanian i s the official language of the Republic of Albania. Its standard spoken and written form is revised and merged from the two main dialects , Gheg a n d Tosk, though it is notably based more on the Tosk dialect. The Shkumbin r iver is the rough dividing line between the two dialects. Also a dialect of Greek t hat preserves features now lost in standard modern Greek is spoken in areas inhabited by the Greek minority. Other languages spoken by ethnic minorities in Albania include Aromanian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Gorani, and Roma. Macedonian is official in the Pustec Municipality in East Albania. Greek is the second most-spoken language in the country, with two thirds of families having at least one member that speaks Greek. Francophony states 320,000 French speakers can be found in Albania. Other spoken languages include Italian, English, French, German, and Turkish. According to the 2011 population census, 2,765,610 (98.77 %) of the population declared Albanian as their mother tongue ( mother tongue is defined as the first or main language spoken at home during childhood ). Literacy rate 99.2% for males and 98.3% for females (overall of 98.7%) Ethnicity / Minorities Issues of ethnicity are a delicate topic and subject to debate. Contrary to official statistics that show an over 97% Albanian majority in the country, minority groups (such a s Greeks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Roma a n d Aromanians) have frequently disputed the official numbers, asserting a higher percentage of the country's population.