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Medium confidence · transparency 3.0/5

How Many Americans Live in Albania

Albania's indicators point in different directions: the stock of American residents dipped while new residence applications rose. The record is fragmented, but it is real.

2.8M
Albania's Population
The Point of Reference
1,367
Born in the US
INSTAT · 2023
933
US Citizens
INSTAT · 2023
Born in the US, as a Share of Albania
0.05%
1,367 ÷ 2,790,000

The American Emigration Revue counts US citizensPeople holding United States citizenship, as counted by Albania's own official records. A separate population from US-born residents; the two are never added. Definitions ›, US-born residentsPeople born in the United States living in Albania, whatever citizenship they hold today. A separate population from US citizens; the two are never added. Definitions ›, naturalizations and long-term permits from official government sources, with every figure cited. This page sets out what Albania publishes, what it does not, and how far the published record can be trusted.

Every figure is shown with the year its source published it.
Annual inflows
298
High comparability
Dual citizenship
Recognized
Americans may keep their US passport
Years to naturalize
5 yrs
minimum residency requirement
01

Why Albania's Records, Not Washington's

The Context

The context every page needs: who counts Americans abroad, and who doesn't.

The United States publishes no count of its own citizens abroad. Its best federal figure, 3.3 million Americans worldwide, is a statistical model built to size the overseas electorate, and the same model said 4.4 million two years earlier. The Census Bureau decided in 1976 to exclude private Americans abroad from the decennial enumeration (overseas federal employees and military are still counted). What Washington publishes instead is fragments: Social Security checks mailed to foreign addresses, tax returns claiming foreign income, quarterly lists of people who gave up their citizenship. See what each federal source actually counts ›

So this project counts from the receiving side. Every figure on this page comes from records Albania itself publishes, read under the same rules applied to every country in the project. Where Albania publishes, it is counted and cited. Where it does not, the gap is shown rather than filled: no estimates, no models. How openly each country reports ›

02

How Albania Counts Americans

The Two Counts

One "US presence," two official populations. None of them contradicts another; they answer different questions.

US-Citizen Headline
933
US citizens · INSTAT 2023
US-Born Headline
1,367
US-born residents · INSTAT 2023
03

What the Research Found

The Findings

Findings from the Albania research, drawn from the official record.

Findings
by Daniel ATZ
Albania is best classified as a fragmented but meaningful official data environment rather than a no-data environment.
The extracted U.S.-specific stock fell from 1,015 to 933 between 2022 and 2023, while the Albania-wide foreigner stock increased from 21,460 in 2023 to 21,940 in 2024. That pattern should be treated as a real substantive finding, although it cannot yet be interpreted as a trend without the missing 2024 U.S. row.
The inflow proxy points in the opposite direction. U.S.-origin residence-permit applications rose from 231 in 2021 to 298 in 2023, suggesting rising administrative demand even though the available stock series dipped.
What the Public Record Says
Data transparency3.0 out of 5 (medium confidence) — how much Albania publishes about resident Americans, how often, and how easily the figures can be checked. Scored under How Far to Trust These Figures below.
04

The Figures as Data

The Evidence

Machine-readable copy of the figures on this page, each with the year its source published it. Free to download and reuse with attribution.

Key Figures as Data
Albania · every figure with the year its source published it
FigureValueVintagePublisher
US citizens933INSTAT
US-born residents1,367INSTAT
US-citizen arrivals298

Vintage is the year the publishing authority reported the figure. A dash means the year or publisher is not yet recorded in our dataset for that figure; the Sources and Datasets section below names every publisher behind this page. The free CSV covers the years shown to readers without an account.

Download CSV (free public data)Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to American Emigration Revue and the named publisher.
05

How Far to Trust These Figures

The Publishing Record

What Albania publishes, how often it publishes, and the sources behind every number on this page.

What We Know · What’s Missing
Medium confidence · transparency 3.0/5
Inflows
Permits
US-Born
Citizens
Naturalizations
published every yearone-off figurenot published

The gaps: Published as a regular series: annual arrivals. Published only partially or as one-off estimates: resident US citizens, US-born residents. Not published: naturalizations, residence or work permits: those gaps set the grade; they do not make the published figures wrong. What the partial figures can support: US-Born, Citizens come as a one-off figure rather than a yearly series: good for a snapshot of today, not for reading a trend.

Sources & Datasets
4 publishing authorities

Every figure on this page comes from one of the publishers below. Links go to the authority and, where stable, straight to the dataset.

06

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick Answers

Every answer is drawn from the official record, from the same sources cited across this page.

How many Americans live in Albania?
Albania's own records count 933 residents holding US citizenship (INSTAT · 2023) and 1,367 US-born residents (INSTAT · 2023). These are different measures of different populations, and they are not added together.Instituti i Statistikave / INSTAT
Does Albania recognize dual citizenship with the United States?
Yes. Americans may keep their US passport when they naturalize in Albania; the minimum residency requirement is 5 years.Instituti i Statistikave / INSTAT
Where do the figures for Americans in Albania come from?
Every figure on this page comes from Albania's own official publishers: Instituti i Statistikave / INSTAT and Departamenti për Kufirin dhe Migracionin. These are counts those bodies published themselves, not estimates or projections. Where Albania publishes nothing, the page says so rather than filling the gap. Albania's published record scores 3.0 out of 5 for transparency, which measures how much it publishes, how often, and how easily the figures can be checked.Instituti i Statistikave / INSTAT
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Edited by Daniel Atz, Founder and Editor in Chief.

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© 2026, American Emigration Revue. Every figure from a named official source.