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Country profile · Western Balkans

Albania

Albania is a Balkan country of about 2.3 million residents on the Adriatic and Ionian seas. It joined NATO in 2009 and is negotiating to join the EU. Prime Minister Edi Rama has led it since 2013 and won a fourth term in May 2025. Since October 13, 2026 student-led protests have demanded his resignation.

Updated October 2026 · Data from the UN, IMF, SIPRI and IISS

White Ottoman-era houses with rows of windows climbing a steep green hillside below a castle, with a river and mountains behind Map of Europe with Albania highlighted
Berat, the "city of a thousand windows", June 2025. Photo: Julianruizp, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

Where Albania ranks

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Which alliances is Albania in?

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Who runs Albania?

Prime Minister Edi Rama was born in Tirana on July 4, 1964. He is a painter and played basketball for Albania's national team. He was mayor of Tirana from 2000 to 2011. He has led the Socialist Party since 2005 and has been prime minister since September 11, 2013. In the election of May 11, 2025 the Socialists won 83 of the 140 seats in the Assembly (chart). It was the first election in which Albanians abroad could vote by post. In September 2025 Rama named Diella, an AI-generated "minister", to oversee public tenders. The anti-corruption prosecutor, SPAK, has charged several senior politicians. Tirana's mayor, Erion Veliaj, has been in custody since February 2025. Former deputy prime minister Belinda Balluku received final charges on October 20, 2026. The opposition leader, Sali Berisha, a former president and prime minister, is on trial for corruption. The United States and the United Kingdom have banned him from entering.

Edi Rama
Edi Rama
Prime Minister since 2013
Socialist Party
Assembly seats, May 2025 election140 seats
71 for a majority
  • Socialist Party (Rama) 83
  • Alliance for a Great Albania (Berisha) 50
  • Others 7

Photo (February 2024): Eriona Çami, European Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

Who are Albania's allies and enemies?

Albania joined NATO on April 1, 2009. In March 2024 it opened the air base at Kuçova, rebuilt with about €50 million of NATO money. NATO says Albania spent 1.48% of its GDP on defense in 2025. Albania opened EU membership talks in July 2022. By October 13, 2026 it had closed four of the 33 chapters, and it aims to finish the talks by the end of 2027. Under a 2023 deal between Giorgia Meloni and Prime Minister Edi Rama, Italy runs two migrant centers in Albania, at Shëngjin and Gjadër. Italian courts blocked the first transfers, and since April 2025 Gjadër has held migrants that Italy wants to deport. Kosovo is Albania's closest kin, but Rama and Kosovo's prime minister, Albin Kurti, have feuded since 2023. Albania cut diplomatic ties with Iran on September 7, 2022, after a cyberattack on government systems. About 3,000 members of the MEK, an Iranian opposition group, live in a camp near Durrës.

Allies and partners

  • ItalyLargest trade partner; runs migrant centers in Albania
  • KosovoClosest kin, despite a Rama-Kurti feud
  • United StatesAlbania joined Trump's Board of Peace in 2026
  • TurkeySold drones; Erdoğan opened a Tirana mosque
  • IsraelCooperation agreement signed October 2026

Rivals

  • IranTies cut after the 2022 cyberattack
Map of Albania with Italy and Kosovo marked as partners, and pins on Kuçova air base, Gjadër, Sazan island and Manëz
  1. Kuçova Air base rebuilt with about €50 million of NATO money. Opened in March 2024.
  2. Gjadër Italian-run center that holds migrants Italy wants to deport.
  3. Sazan Island where a luxury resort linked to Jared Kushner is planned. Protests began in May 2026.
  4. Manëz Camp of about 3,000 members of the MEK, an Iranian opposition group.
  • Albania
  • Partner

Who does Albania trade with?

Albania exported $4.00 billion of goods in 2024 and imported $9.60 billion (UN Comtrade). Italy bought 43.7% of exports (chart). UN Comtrade counts Kosovo together with Serbia, and the two bought 12.1%. Italy supplied 21.2% of imports, China 10.9% and Turkey 10.8%. INSTAT, the statistics office, says Italy's share of exports fell to 38.9% in the first four months of 2026. Clothing and footwear made up 28.7% of exports in 2024, and minerals, fuels and electricity 21.4%. About 95% of Albania's electricity comes from hydropower, so Albania sells power abroad in wet years and buys it in dry ones. Tourism has boomed. Foreigners entered Albania 12.47 million times in 2025, about five times the number of residents. The economy grew 3.66% in 2025. The lek has gained against the euro, from 111 lek per euro in April 2023 to 90.74 on October 21, 2026.

Sells to

Share of Albania's exports

  1. Italy43.7%
  2. Kosovo and Serbia12.1%
  3. Greece6.3%
  4. Germany5.9%
  5. Spain3.5%

Buys from

Share of Albania's imports

  1. Italy21.2%
  2. China10.9%
  3. Turkey10.8%
  4. Greece7.6%
  5. Germany7.2%

Goods, 2024. UN Comtrade (Albania's own figures; Comtrade counts Kosovo with Serbia).

Why are students protesting against Edi Rama?

Protests against a luxury resort began on May 31, 2026. Affinity Partners, the company of Jared Kushner, plans the resort on Sazan island and at Zvërnec, in a protected area. SPAK has frozen about €110 million from the sale of land at Zvërnec, and it says its inquiry does not concern any Kushner company. From October 13, 2026 students led larger protests in Tirana. They spread to Durrës, Elbasan and Shkodër. The students want cheaper and better universities, jobs, an end to corruption and Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation. Protesters set fire to the Education Ministry, part of the prime minister's office and the Supreme Court building. Police used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets. About 300 people were hurt by October 20, more than half of them police. Rama refuses to resign. He blames "foreign hands" and names Russia and Iran, without giving evidence. The European Commission condemned the violence on October 18.

Why have so many Albanians left?

Enver Hoxha led communist Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He broke with Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and China in turn, and in 1967 he declared Albania the world's first atheist state. Between 1975 and 1983 his regime built 173,371 concrete bunkers. Private cars were banned until 1991. After communism fell, the ship Vlora carried about 20,000 Albanians to Bari, in Italy, on August 8, 1991. In 1997 pyramid schemes collapsed. About two-thirds of Albanians had put money in them, and about 2,000 people were killed in the unrest that followed. The 2023 census counted 2.40 million residents, about 430,000 fewer than in 2011. In 2025 about 28,500 more people left Albania than arrived. Albanians abroad sent home $2.56 billion in 2025, or 8.4% of GDP (chart). Albania now brings in foreign workers, mostly from the Philippines, India and Egypt.

Remittances, share of GDP, 2025

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  1. Kosovo17.3%
  2. Bosnia and Herzegovina10.7%
  3. Montenegro9.7%
  4. Albania8.4%
  5. Croatia6.9%
  6. Serbia6.6%
  7. North Macedonia2.4%
  8. Italy0.5%
  9. Greece0.2%

World Bank World Development Indicators, from KNOMAD and IMF balance of payments data, October 2026

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