Background: In 1990 Albania ended 44 years of xenophobic communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The transition has proven difficult as corrupt governments have tried to deal with severe unemployment and widespread gangsterism.

Map reference: Ethnic Groups in Eastern Europe, Europe

Area
Total area total: 28,750 km²
Land: 27,400 km²
Comparative: slightly larger than Maryland

Land boundaries: total 720 km, Greece 282 km, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 151 km, Serbia and Montenegro 287 km (114 km with Serbia, 173 km with Montenegro)

Coastline: 362 km

Maritime claims
Continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: mild temperate; cool, cloudy, wet winters; hot, clear, dry summers; interior is cooler and wetter

Terrain: mostly mountains and hills; small plains along coast

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, coal, chromium, copper, timber, nickel

Land use
Arable land: 21%
Permanent crops: 4%
Meadows and pastures: 15%
Forest and woodland: 38%
Other: 22%

Irrigated land: 4,230 km² (1989)

Geography
Note: strategic location along Strait of Otranto (links Adriatic Sea to Ionian Sea and Mediterranean Sea)

Population: 3,413,904 (July 1995 est.)
Note: IMF, working with Albanian government figures, estimates the population at 3,120,000 in 1993 and that the population has fallen since 1990
Growth rate: 1.16% (1995 est.)

Nationality
Noun: Albanian(s)
Adjective: Albanian

Ethnic groups: Albanian 95%, Greeks 3%, other 2% (Vlachs, Gypsies, Serbs, and Bulgarians) (1989 est.)

Languages: Albanian (Tosk is the official dialect), Greek

Religions: Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%
Note: all mosques and churches were closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November 1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice

Age structure
0-14 years: 32% (female 520,186; male 563,953)
15-64 years: 62% (female 1,026,321; male 1,104,371)
65 years and over: 6% (female 112,252; male 86,821) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.16% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 21.7 births/1000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 5.22 deaths/1000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: -4.88 migrant(s)/1000 population (1995 est.)

Environment
Current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution from industrial and domestic effluents
Current issues natural hazards: destructive earthquakes; tsunami occur along southwestern coast
Current issues international agreements: party to - Biodiversity, Climate Change

Infant mortality rate: 28.1 deaths/1000 live births (1995 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
Total population: 73.81 years
Male: 70.83 years
Female: 77.02 years (1995 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.71 children born/woman (1995 est.)

Literacy: age 9 and over can read and write (1955)
Total population: 72%
Male: 80%
Female: 63%

Country name
Conventional long form: Republic of Albania
Conventional short form: Albania
Local long form: Republika e Shqiperise
Local short form: Shqiperia
Former: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

Government type: emerging democracy

Capital: Tirane

Administrative divisions: 26 districts (rrethe, singular - rreth; Berat, Dibre, Durres, Elbasan, Fier, Gjirokaster, Gramsh, Kolonje, Korce, Kruje, Kukes, Lezhe, Librazhd, Lushnje, Mat, Mirdite, Permet, Pogradec, Puke, Sarande, Shkoder, Skrapar, Tepelene, Tirane, Tropoje, Vlore

Independence: 28 November 1912 (from Ottoman Empire)

National holiday: Independence Day, 28 November (1912)

Constitution: an interim basic law was approved by the People's Assembly on 29 April 1991; a draft constitution was rejected by popular referendum in the fall of 1994 and a new draft is pending

Legal system: has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch
Chief of state: President of the Republic Sali BERISHA (since 9 April 1992)
Head of government: Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers Aleksander Gabriel MEKSI (since 10 April 1992)
Cabinet: Council of Ministers; appointed by the president

Legislative branch: unicameral
People's Assembly Kuvendi Popullor: elections last held 22 March 1992; results - DP 62.29%, ASP 25.57%, SDP 4.33%, RP 3.15%, UHP 2.92%, other 1.74%; seats - (140 total) DP 92, ASP 38, SDP 7, RP 1, UHP 2
Note: 6 members of the Democratic Party defected making the present seating in the Assembly DP 86, ASP 38, SDP 7, DAP 6, RP 1, UHP 2

Judicial branch: Supreme Court

International organization participation: BSEC, CCC, CE (guest), EBRD, ECE, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT (nonsignatory user), INTERPOL, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NACC, OIC, OSCE, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation
In the us chief of mission: Ambassador Lublin Hasan DILJA
In the us chancery: Suite 1010, 1511 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20,005
In the us telephone: [1] (202) 223-4,942, 8,187
In the us FAX: [1] (202) 628-7,342
From the us chief of mission: Ambassador Joseph E. LAKE
From the us embassy: Rruga E. Elbansanit 103, Tirane
From the us mailing address: PSC 59, Box 100 (A), APO AE 9,624
From the us telephone: [355] (42) 328-75, 335-20
From the us FAX: [355] (42) 322-22

Flag description: red with a black two-headed eagle in the center

Economy overview: An extremely poor country by European standards, Albania is making the difficult transition to a more open-market economy. The economy rebounded in 1993-94 after a severe depression accompanying the collapse of the previous centrally planned system in 1990 and 1991. Stabilization policies - including a strict monetary policy, public sector layoffs, and reduced social services - have improved the government's fiscal situation and reduced inflation. The recovery was spurred by the remittances of some 20% of the population which works abroad, mostly in Greece and Italy. These remittances supplement GDP and help offset the large foreign trade deficit. Foreign assistance and humanitarian aid also supported the recovery. Most agricultural land was privatized in 1992, substantially improving peasant incomes. Albania's limited industrial sector, now less than one-sixth of GDP, continued to decline in 1994. A sharp fall in chromium prices reduced hard currency receipts from the mining sector. Large segments of the population, especially those living in urban areas, continue to depend on humanitarian aid to meet basic food requirements. Unemployment remains a severe problem accounting for approximately one-fifth of the work force. Growth is expected to continue in 1995, but could falter if Albania becomes involved in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, workers' remittances from Greece are reduced, or foreign assistance declines.

Real gdp growth rate: 11% (1994 est.)

Real gdp per capita: $1,110 (1994 est.)

Agriculture products: accounts for 55% of GDP; arable land: per capita among lowest in Europe; 80% of arable land: now in private hands; 60% of the work force engaged in farming; produces wide range of temperate-zone crops and livestock

Industries: food processing, textiles and clothing, lumber, oil, cement, chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower

Industrial production growth rate: -10% (1993 est.), accounts for 16% of GDP (1993 est.)

Labor force: 1.5 million (1987)
By occupation agriculture: 60%
By occupation industry and commerce: 40% (1986)

Unemployment rate: 18% (1994 est.)

Budget
Revenues: $1.1 billion
Expenditures: $1.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $70 million (1991 est.)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Exports: $112 million (f.o.b., 1993)
Commodoties: asphalt, metals and metallic ores, electricity, crude oil, vegetables, fruits, tobacco
Partners: Italy, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary

Imports: $621 million (f.o.b., 1993)
Commodoties: machinery, consumer goods, grains
Partners: Italy, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece

Debt external: $920 million (1994 est.)

Exchange rates: leke (L) per US$1 - 100 (January 1995), 99 (January 1994), 97 (January 1993), 50 (January 1992), 25 (September 1991)

Electricity
Capacity: 770,000 kW
Production: 4 billion kWh
Production consumption per capita: 1,200 kWh (1994)

Telephone system: about 55,000 telephones; about 15 telephones/1000 persons
Local: primitive; about 11,000 telephones in Tirane, the capital city
Intercity: obsolete wire system; no longer provides a telephone for every village; in 1992, following the fall of the communist government, peasants cut the wire to about 1,000 villages and used it to build fences
International: inadequate; carried through the Tirane exchange and transmitted through Italy on 240 microwave radio relay circuits and through Greece on 150 microwave radio relay circuits

Military expenditures: 330 million leke, NA% of GNP (1993; note - conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using the current exchange rate could produce misleading results

Airports: 11
With paved runways 2438 to 3047 m: 3
With paved runways 914 to 1523 m: 2
With unpaved runways over 3047 m: 2
With unpaved runways 2438 to 3047 m: 1
With unpaved runways 15-24 to 2438 m: 1
With unpaved runways 914 to 1523 m: 2

Pipelines: crude oil 145 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas 64 km (1991)

Waterways: 43 km plus Albanian sections of Lake Scutari, Lake Ohrid, and Lake Prespa (1990)

Merchant marine: total:11 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 52,967 GRT/76,887 DWT

Disputes international: the Albanian Government supports protection of the rights of ethnic Albanians outside of its borders; Albanian majority in Kosovo seeks independence from Serbian Republic; Albanians in Macedonia claim discrimination in education, access to public sector jobs and representation in government; Albania is involved in a bilaterlal dispute with Greece over border demarcation, the treatment of Albania's ethnic Greek minority, and migrant Albanian workers in Greece

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route and cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; limited opium production