Albania Counties (original) (raw)

Buy data Donate

Updates:

An administrative reform took effect in 2015. The communes (komuna) were abolished and absorbed by the municipalities (bashkia), along with a few mergers or splits, resulting in 61 municipalities subordinate to the counties.

Jose Gavinha sent me the results of the Albanian census of 2011-10-01, found at source [3].

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number II-1, dated 2010-02-03, changes the ISO codes for nine counties, prefixing a '0' to each of the one-digit codes. Now all the county codes are two digits.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-6, dated 2004-03-08, shows a change in terminology. Formerly, the top-level subdivisions of Albania were called prefectures, or prefektur� in Albanian. According to the new document, they should be called counties (qark). (However, the statistics bureau's "Albania in Figures" uses the term prefekturat, or prefectures in English.) ISO's format indicates that it considers the districts as the primary subdivisions of Albania, and the counties are regarded just as groupings of districts.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It lists the twelve new counties, assigns ISO codes to them, and changes two district names and one district code. La� (ISO code LA) was changed to Kurbin (KB), and Mal�sia e Madhe was changed to Mal�si e Madhe. FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, issued on 2004-10-01, assigns FIPS codes to the new counties.

Country overview:

Short name ALBANIA
ISO code AL
FIPS code AL
Language Albanian (sq)
Time zone +1 ~
Capital Tirana

Albania was still part of Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century. It declared its independence in 1912. The country went through several forms of government, including occupation during the World Wars, until it became a republic on 1946-01-11.

Other names of country:

  1. Albanian: Shqip�ria, Republika e Shqip�ris� (formal)
  2. Danish: Albanien
  3. Dutch: Albani�, Republiek Albani� (formal)
  4. English: Republic of Albania (formal)
  5. Finnish: Albania
  6. French: Albanie f
  7. German: Albanien n
  8. Icelandic: Alban�a
  9. Italian: Albania f
  10. Norwegian: Albania, Republikken Albania (formal)
  11. Portuguese: Alb�nia, Rep�blica f da Alb�nia f (formal)
  12. Russian: Республика Албания (formal)
  13. Spanish: Albania f
  14. Swedish: Albanien
  15. Turkish: Arnavutluk

Origin of name:

Ancient inhabitants were called Albanoi by Ptolemy. Shqip�ria is Albanian for "land of the men of the eagle".

Primary subdivisions:

Albania is divided into twelve qarqe (sing. qark: counties, or regions).

County HASC ISO FIPS Pop-2011 Pop-2001 Area(km.�) Area(mi.�) Capital
Berat AL.BE 01 AL40 141,944 193,855 1,802 696 Berat
Dib�r AL.DB 09 AL41 137,047 191,035 2,507 968 Peshkopi
Durr�s AL.DU 02 AL42 262,785 247,345 827 319 Durr�s
Elbasan AL.EB 03 AL43 295,827 366,137 3,278 1,266 Elbasan
Fier AL.FI 04 AL44 310,331 384,386 1,887 729 Fier
Gjirokast�r AL.GK 05 AL45 72,176 114,293 2,883 1,113 Gjirokast�r
Kor�� AL.KE 06 AL46 220,357 266,322 3,711 1,433 Kor��
Kuk�s AL.KK 07 AL47 85,292 112,050 2,373 916 Kuk�s
Lezh� AL.LZ 08 AL48 134,027 159,792 1,581 610 Lezh�
Shkod�r AL.SD 10 AL49 215,347 257,018 3,562 1,375 Shkod�r
Tiran� AL.TI 11 AL50 749,365 601,565 1,586 612 Tiran�
Vlor� AL.VR 12 AL51 175,640 193,361 2,706 1,045 Vlor�
12 counties 2,800,138 3,087,159 28,703 11,082
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: County codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context,prefix "AL-" to the code (ex: AL-04 represents Fier). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Pop-2011: 2011-10-01 census. Pop-2001: 2001-04-01 census. Populations and areas of counties were calculatedby adding the component districts.

Postal codes:

Albania adopted a new set of four-digit postal codes in 2006-10, but the Albanian post office has been slow to implement them (Source [1]).

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Albania page and the Communes of Albania page.

Underneath the counties there are 36 rrethe (districts), currently not functioning. Under them there are 308 communes and 65 municipalities.

Territorial extent:

Vlor� includes Saseno (Sazan) Island.

The UN LOCODE page for Albania lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names:

  1. Durr�s: from Ancient Greek dyrrachion, possibly meaning dangerous cliffs
  2. Elbasan: Turkish el: the people, basan: dominating (originally a fortress)
  3. Kor��: South Slavic gorica: small mountain
  4. Tiran�: from Ancient Greek Tyrrenos: Etruscans; or, named after Tehran, Iran, to commemorate a victory
  5. Vlor�: from Ancient Greek aulon: narrow passage, strait

Change history:

  1. 1912-11-28: Albania, consisting of the vilayet of Scutari and parts of Monastir and Yanina, declared independence from Turkey.
  2. 1913-11-22: A law titled �The Appropriate Code of Civil Administration in Albania� took effect. Under it, Albania was divided into eight prefectures: Berati, Dibra, Durr�si, Elbasani, Gjirokastra, Kor�a, Shkodra and Vlora. The prefectures were divided into sub-prefectures, and then into krahina. "At various points in time, the sub-prefecture was called the district (rreth)." (Source [3])
  3. 1923: Albania acquired a strip of territory in the south from Greece.
  4. ~1925: Albania had the following ten prefectures, further subdivided into 57 districts. Dib�r was later renamed Peshkopi, and Kuk�s renamed Kosovo. The number of districts was 39 in 1927, 30 in 1934, and 61 in 1945.
Prefecture Pop-1930 Pop-1945 Area(km.�) Capital Became
Berat 142,616 126,913 3,666 Berat Berat, Fier, Lushnj�, Skrapar
Dib�r 86,992 83,677 2,151 Peshkopij� Dib�r, Mat
Durr�s 77,890 104,488 1,550 Durr�s Durr�s, Kruj�
Elbasan 111,422 111,286 3,539 Elbasan Elbasan, Gramsh, Librazhd
Gjinokast�r 143,926 121,253 4,125 Gjinokast�r Gjirokast�r, P�rmet, Sarand�, Tepelen�
Kor�� 147,536 149,433 3,750 Kor�� Kolonj�, Kor��, Pogradec
Kuk�s 49,081 49,344 2,038 Kuk�s Kuk�s, Tropoj�
Shkod�r 132,336 157,665 5,560 Scutari Lezh�, Mirdit�, Puk�, Shkod�r
Tirana 57,808 93,216 911 Tirana Tiran�
Vlon� 53,461 115,080 1,448 Vlon� Vlor�
1,003,068 1,112,355 28,738
Pop-1930: 1930 census. Pop-1945: 1945 census. Became: Districts formed from this prefecture in 1958.
  1. 1946: A new administrative structure was inaugurated. There were 10 prefectures and 39 sub-prefectures. The tertiary level consisted partly of localities, and the following year, all remaining communes were replaced by localities; there were also cities and villages.
  2. 1953: Status of prefectures changed to regions.
  3. 1958-07: The ten prefectures were re-organized into 26 rrethet (singular, rreth: districts). For the evolution of the districts, see the Districts of Albania page.
  4. 2000-07-31: Law No. 8653 replaced the districts by the regions as administrative units.

Other names of subdivisions:

The Italian names are often used by Western Europeans in general.

  1. Dib�r: Dibra, Dibr� (variant)
  2. Durr�s: Durresi, Durrsi (variant); Durazzo (Italian)
  3. Gjirokast�r: Gjinokast�r (variant); Argirocastro (Italian); Argyrocastro, Argyrokastron (Greek)
  4. Kolonj�: Ersek� (obsolete); Kolonja (variant)
  5. Kor��: Coriza, Corizza, Koritsa, Koritza (Italian); Kor�a (variant); Kortscha (German)
  6. Kuk�s: Kosova, Kossovo (obsolete)
  7. Lezh�: Alessio (Italian); Lezha (variant)
  8. Lushnj�: Lushenj�, Lushnja (variant)
  9. Shkod�r: Esc�tari (Portuguese-obsolete); Shkodra, Skod�r (variant); Scutari (Italian)
  10. Tiran�: Tiran (Turkish); Tirana (Italian, Spanish)
  11. Vlor�: Vlona, Vlora, Vlon� (variant); Valona (Italian)

According to Address Doctor (Source [1]), city names have two grammatical forms in Albanian, the definite and the indefinite. "Tirana" is definite and "Tiran�" is indefinite.

Population history:

County 1960c 1970c 1973e 1978e 1982e 1988a 2001c
Berat 105,000 143,000 155,100 178,400 196,000 219,500 193,855
Dib�r 117,000 149,000 160,300 182,600 201,800 224,100 191,035
Durr�s 170,000 238,000 258,000 286,600 310,000 347,800 247,345
Elbasan 161,000 213,000 232,600 278,500 309,000 353,200 366,137
Fier 178,000 249,000 265,600 301,400 327,400 371,900 384,386
Gjirokast�r 97,000 116,000 123,000 132,800 141,900 154,000 114,293
Kor�� 192,000 233,000 243,900 265,000 283,300 308,300 266,322
Kuk�s 69,000 93,000 101,900 111,800 125,800 143,600 112,050
Lezh� 44,000 64,000 69,900 88,700 98,000 110,800 159,792
Shkod�r 151,000 196,000 211,300 231,500 251,200 281,200 257,018
Tiran� 194,000 254,000 272,000 286,200 310,000 363,100 601,565
Vlor� 149,000 188,000 200,000 216,900 231,700 260,600 193,361
Total 1,627,000 2,136,000 2,293,600 2,560,400 2,786,100 3,138,100 3,087,159
Key: a = average population for the year; c = census; e = official estimate

County populations calculated by totaling the populations of their component districts.

Sources:

  1. [1] Postal code information from Address Doctor , retrieved 2009-03-22.
  2. [2] Statistical Yearbook of P.S.R. of Albania 1988. Tirane.
  3. [3] Census 2011 Publications . Instituti i Statistikave, Tiran� (retrieved 2013-10-19).
  4. [4] Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States 1992. Europa Publications Ltd., London, 1992.
  5. [5] "A Brief History of the Administrative-territorial Organization in Albania ." Ministry of State for Local Issues (retrieved 2014-07-05).
  6. [6] Resident population by municipality/commune and marital status . 2011 census: Instituti i Statistikave (retrieved 2014-11-13).
  7. [7] Electoral map of Albania (dated 2005-06-20, retrieved 2005-10-15).