e-Albania services expand, but the elderly remain outside the digital counter

The digitalization of public services is rapidly expanding the user base among young and working-age groups, but is increasingly leaving older generations behind, deepening what is known as digital illiteracy.

The latest INSTAT data on the distribution of individuals interacting with public authorities to download or print official forms on the government platform e-Albania show a strong divide in the user structure, where the over-55 age group has the lowest share of total users, even though it accounts for more than 40 percent of the country’s population.

In 2025, the age groups 25-34 and 35-44 make up 51 percent of total e-Albania users.

The 45-54 age group has also maintained high stability, accounting for 23% of users, indicating that the active population nearing retirement is managing to adapt to online services.

Meanwhile, young people aged 16-24 hold a constant share of around 15.4% of total users.

The figures reveal a dramatic drop in the use of these services by the population nearing retirement and pensioners, confirming the great difficulties these groups have in using digital platforms.

For the 55-64 age group, the share in downloading official documents has halved within a year, dropping from 16.5% in 2024 to just 7.2% of total users in 2025.

The situation remains even more critical for the elderly in the 65-74 age bracket, who make up only 2.8% of e-Albania users in 2025.

As services become exclusively online, older ages are finding themselves excluded or unable to perform procedures, and completely dependent on family members or third parties, often at a very high cost, just to obtain even a certificate.

With the full transition of many key application services to the e-Albania platform, the elderly no longer have alternative choices.

When some of them lack the means or sufficient knowledge to navigate the system, they simply do not appear in statistics as direct users, delegating this need to children or grandchildren.

The move towards secure identification, through more complex login systems or mobile apps, often requires steps that are complicated for this generation, such as using OTP (One-Time Password) codes via messages or emails, which increase the barrier to use.

While working-age groups who are trained or use technology daily, pensioners on the other hand face a lack of public assistance points or simplified courses for the third age, meaning their pace of adaptation cannot keep up with updates to government platforms./Monitor