diversity, Climate Change

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

@Albania:People

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

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/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 5.22 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: -4.88 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 28.1 deaths/1,000 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.)

Nationality:
noun: Albanian(s)
adjective: Albanian

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

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

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

Literacy: age 9 and over can read and write (1955)
total population: 72%
male: 80%
female: 63%

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

@Albania:Government

Names:
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

Digraph: AL

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