Albania’s natural population growth turns negative for the first time in almost a century

TIRANA, May 22 – Albania’s natural population growth registered negative growth in the first quarter of this year as the number of deaths slightly exceeded births in a dramatic but warned situation that takes place for the first time in nine decades since Albania established a civil registry in the late 1920s. The country’s deaths outnumbered births by 285 in the first quarter of this year as the birth rate dropped by an annual 18 percent to hit a record low of 5,670, according to data published by INSTAT, the country’s state-run statistical institute. If the downward trend continues for…