Nearly half of Albanians struggle to make it through the month, second in Europe

The latest Eurostat data show that almost half of Albania’s population faces serious difficulties covering the cost of living each month.

Specifically, 32.9% of households report that they barely make it to the end of the month, while another 13.4% experience the situation in its most extreme form, describing daily survival as very difficult.

Together, these two groups account for 46.3% of citizens who face major challenges covering their basic needs, according to 2023 statistics for Albania.

This indicator places Albania second on the continent, immediately after Greece, where the situation is even more alarming: 67% of Greeks say they find it difficult or very difficult to cover their usual monthly expenses.

Compared with the European Union average, the gap is striking. In 2025, only 17.6% of EU citizens reported similar problems, with 11.2% facing difficulties and 6.4% facing great difficulties.

Albania also holds an unfavorable position within the Balkan region, with the percentage reaching 43.8% in North Macedonia, 37.9% in Montenegro, and 31.2% in Serbia.

One of the main causes of this inability to make it through the month is closely linked to wage levels, which remain among the lowest in the region.

In 2025, the average gross monthly wage in Albania was estimated at around 860 euros, well below the figures for Serbia (1,290 euros), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1,245 euros), Montenegro (1,206 euros), and North Macedonia (approximately 1,100 euros). The only regional economy with a lower average wage is Kosovo, at 713 euros gross during the same period.

The difference becomes even more pronounced when looking at EU indicators, where the average annual gross wage for a full-time employee reached 39,800 euros in 2024, or around 3,317 euros per month. This makes the financial burden on Albanian households even heavier, particularly when the significant rise in food prices is also taken into account.

In 2025, the food price index in Albania reached 102.9% of the EU average, surpassing the European standard for the first time and placing the country at the top of the region in terms of the cost of food products.

Eurostat’s methodology for this measurement is based on a direct question addressed to households: “Taking into account all your household’s income, are you able to make it through the month, that is, pay the usual necessary expenses?” Responses are categorized into six levels, ranging from “with great difficulty” to “very easily.” To calculate the difficulty indicator, Eurostat combines the two most negative categories. Usual expenses include housing costs but exclude business or farm expenses.

At the overall European level, in 2025, 26.4% of the population managed to live easily or very easily, while 56.1% got through the month relatively easily or with some difficulty. When all categories reporting at least some problems are grouped together, 42.5% of EU citizens faced challenges making it through the month. This indicator varies significantly between member states, ranging from 18.3% in Germany and 19.8% in the Netherlands to 76.9% in Bulgaria and 87.1% in Greece.