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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 prefekturë 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. Laç (ISO code LA) was changed to Kurbin (KB), and Malësia e Madhe was changed to Malësi 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: Shqipëria, Republika e Shqipërisë (formal)
2. Danish: Albanien
3. Dutch: Albanië, Republiek Albanië (formal)
4. English: Republic of Albania (formal)
5. Finnish: Albania
6. French: Albanie f
7. German: Albanien n
8. Icelandic: Albanía
9. Italian: Albania f
10. Norwegian: Albania, Republikken Albania (formal)
11. Portuguese: Albânia, República f da Albânia 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. Shqipëria 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.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Berat	AL.BE	01	AL40	141,944	193,855	1,802	696	Berat
Dibër	AL.DB	09	AL41	137,047	191,035	2,507	968	Peshkopi
Durrës	AL.DU	02	AL42	262,785	247,345	827	319	Durrës
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
Gjirokastër	AL.GK	05	AL45	72,176	114,293	2,883	1,113	Gjirokastër
Korçë	AL.KE	06	AL46	220,357	266,322	3,711	1,433	Korçë
Kukës	AL.KK	07	AL47	85,292	112,050	2,373	916	Kukës
Lezhë	AL.LZ	08	AL48	134,027	159,792	1,581	610	Lezhë
Shkodër	AL.SD	10	AL49	215,347	257,018	3,562	1,375	Shkodër
Tiranë	AL.TI	11	AL50	749,365	601,565	1,586	612	Tiranë
Vlorë	AL.VR	12	AL51	175,640	193,361	2,706	1,045	Vlorë
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 calculated by 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: 

Vlorë 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. Durrës: from Ancient Greek dyrrachion, possibly meaning dangerous cliffs
2. Elbasan: Turkish el: the people, basan: dominating (originally a fortress)
3. Korçë: South Slavic gorica: small mountain
4. Tiranë: from Ancient Greek Tyrrenos: Etruscans; or, named after Tehran, Iran, to commemorate a victory
5. Vlorë: 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, Durrësi, Elbasani, Gjirokastra, Korça, 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. Dibër was later renamed Peshkopi, and Kukës renamed Kosovo. The number of districts was 39 in 1927, 30 in 1934, and 61 in 1945.

Prefecture	Pop-1930	Pop-1945	Area(km.²)	Capital	Became
Berat	142,616	126,913	3,666	Berat	Berat, Fier, Lushnjë, Skrapar
Dibër	86,992	83,677	2,151	Peshkopijë	Dibër, Mat
Durrës	77,890	104,488	1,550	Durrës	Durrës, Krujë
Elbasan	111,422	111,286	3,539	Elbasan	Elbasan, Gramsh, Librazhd
Gjinokastër	143,926	121,253	4,125	Gjinokastër	Gjirokastër, Përmet, Sarandë, Tepelenë
Korçë	147,536	149,433	3,750	Korçë	Kolonjë, Korçë, Pogradec
Kukës	49,081	49,344	2,038	Kukës	Kukës, Tropojë
Shkodër	132,336	157,665	5,560	Scutari	Lezhë, Mirditë, Pukë, Shkodër
Tirana	57,808	93,216	911	Tirana	Tiranë
Vlonë	53,461	115,080	1,448	Vlonë	Vlorë
	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. Dibër: Dibra, Dibrë (variant)
2. Durrës: Durresi, Durrsi (variant); Durazzo (Italian)
3. Gjirokastër: Gjinokastër (variant); Argirocastro (Italian); Argyrocastro, Argyrokastron (Greek)
4. Kolonjë: Ersekë (obsolete); Kolonja (variant)
5. Korçë: Coriza, Corizza, Koritsa, Koritza (Italian); Korça (variant); Kortscha (German)
6. Kukës: Kosova, Kossovo (obsolete)
7. Lezhë: Alessio (Italian); Lezha (variant)
8. Lushnjë: Lushenjë, Lushnja (variant)
9. Shkodër: Escútari (Portuguese-obsolete); Shkodra, Skodër (variant); Scutari (Italian)
10. Tiranë: Tiran (Turkish); Tirana (Italian, Spanish)
11. Vlorë: Vlona, Vlora, Vlonë (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 "Tiranë" 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
Dibër	117,000	149,000	160,300	182,600	201,800	224,100	191,035
Durrës	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
Gjirokastër	97,000	116,000	123,000	132,800	141,900	154,000	114,293
Korçë	192,000	233,000	243,900	265,000	283,300	308,300	266,322
Kukës	69,000	93,000	101,900	111,800	125,800	143,600	112,050
Lezhë	44,000	64,000	69,900	88,700	98,000	110,800	159,792
Shkodër	151,000	196,000	211,300	231,500	251,200	281,200	257,018
Tiranë	194,000	254,000	272,000	286,200	310,000	363,100	601,565
Vlorë	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, Tiranë (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).