FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The population of Albania, in addition to shrinking rapidly from year to year, is undergoing a transition, where the young age is being reduced rapidly, while the army of people of retirement age is increasing.
INSTAT data show that on January 1, 2023, the population over 60 years old was a quarter of the total population.
People + 60 accounted for 23.5% of the total population with an increase of 1 percentage point compared to 2022 and with an increase of 8.8 percentage points since 2011 when the last population census was conducted.
In 2001, this age group occupied only 11% of the total population. At the beginning of this year, there were 649,610 people in the whole country, from 449,061 in 2011.
The birth boom of the 1960s is bringing a rapid rise in retirees this decade as the working-age population shrinks rapidly from declining births and high migration rates.
The number of people over 80 years old, which is considered the very old population, is growing at a fast pace. Their number reached 90,543 on January 1, 2023 and accounted for 3.3 percent of the total population.
The structure of the population in favor of old age heralds problems in all aspects. The pension scheme will be put into difficulty in conditions where the number of pensioners is increasing and contributors will be reduced by the decline of the labor force.
Official data from the Institute of Social Insurance show that the number of pensioners is growing faster than the number of contributors. In 2022 for every beneficiary there were only 1.1 contributors from 1.2 which was this ratio in 2018.
In the following years, the contributor/beneficiary ratio will deteriorate even further due to unfavorable demographic developments.
Projections show that by 2030 the working-age population will shrink systematically and the number of pensioners will increase rapidly, putting the sustainability of the pension scheme at risk.
In 2010, the official statistics of ISSH reported 543,053 pensioners, while at the end of 2022, 686,923 such were reported.
Also, the Albanian government is too late to create the infrastructure for the third age. The United Nations organization has pointed out that recently the country lacks social services and care centers for the third age, while the health system has deficiencies in this regard.
The UN reported that in 2021, about 91,000 elderly people needed care, but currently the needs of even 2% of them are not met.
With a rapidly aging population, Albania is facing an imminent challenge to ensure access to affordable and quality long-term care services for all seniors in need.
The projected cost of long-term care is at least 1.08% of GDP, but the aging population is expected to bring a significant increase in the demand for long-term care in the next 30 years./Monitor
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