TIRANA, Dec. 7 – Although having one of the lowest GDP per capita among EU aspirant countries, Albania boasts the highest life expectancy and one of the top fertility rates among the seven EU candidate and potential candidate countries, according to a report by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Data shows that at 76.4 years for men and 80.3 years for women in 2014, an average of 78.35 years on both sexes, Albania’s life expectancy was up to 3.2 years higher compared to other regional EU aspirants including Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Albania’s life expectancy has increased by an average of six years during the past 25 years after the collapse of the country’s communist regime.
Once the country with the highest fertility rate under communism, Albania saw its average number of children per woman drop to 1.78 in 2014, down from 3 in 1990 just before the transition to a multi-party system and a record 6 in the early 1960s, which has contributed to the population shrink and ageing. The Eurostat report ranks Albania as the country with the third highest fertility rate among EU aspirants after Kosovo’s 2.2 and Turkey’s 2.17, well below the replacement level that is required to sustain the population size.
Albania’s GDP per capita in 2014 was estimated at Euro 3,440, leaving behind only Kosovo in the seven-country list.
Albania’s GDP per capita expressed in purchasing power standard (PPS), an artificial currency unit that eliminates price level differences between countries, slightly climbed to 29 percent of the EU 28 average in 2014, up from 27 percent in 2013 ranking better only compared to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 28 percent in a 37-country list which includes 28 EU member states, three EFTA members, five EU candidate countries and one potential candidate, according to an earlier Eurostat report.
