Elbasan County
Adapted from Wikipedia · Adventurer experience
Elbasan County is one of the 12 counties in Albania. It is called "Qarku i Elbasanit" in Albanian. The county has about 232,580 people, as of 2023. It covers 3,199 square kilometers. The main city and capital is Elbasan. This area is important to Albania, helping with culture and daily life for many people.
Administrative divisions
Elbasan County in Albania used to have four smaller areas. In 2015, it changed to seven main areas called municipalities. These are Belsh, Cërrik, Elbasan, Gramsh, Librazhd, Peqin and Prrenjas.
Before 2015, there were fifty smaller areas. Now, these areas include about 385 towns and villages. You can see a full list at Villages of Elbasan County.
Demographics
Elbasan County has 232,580 people as of 2023. Most people, about 90%, are Albanian. Smaller groups include Roma, Balkan Egyptians, and a few South Slavic people such as Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, and Bosniaks, along with Aromanians, Greeks, and others.
Between 2011 and 2023, the religious makeup of Elbasan changed. The number of Sunni Muslim people dropped from 64% to 53%, while Bektashi Muslims grew from about half a percent to 1.4%. Catholic Christian numbers fell a little, and Orthodox Christians stayed the same at around 5%. Evangelical Christians increased a bit. More people now say they have no religion: atheists rose from 3% to 4%, and those who believe but don’t follow a specific religion grew from 10% to nearly 18%. The group of people who didn’t say or had other beliefs also increased.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 130,000 | — |
| 1960 | 160,849 | +23.7% |
| 1969 | 206,842 | +28.6% |
| 1979 | 281,769 | +36.2% |
| 1989 | 357,497 | +26.9% |
| 2001 | 362,736 | +1.5% |
| 2011 | 295,827 | −18.4% |
| 2023 | 232,580 | −21.4% |
| Source: | ||
| Religion group | Census 2011 | Census 2023 (Revised Source) | Difference (2023−2011) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Sunni Muslim | 190,550 | 64.4% | 123,133 | 52.9% | -67,417 | -11.5% |
| Bektashi Muslim | 1,515 | 0.5% | 3,186 | 1.4% | +1,671 | +0.9% |
| Total Muslim | 192,065 | 64.9% | 126,319 | 54.3% | -65,746 | -10.6% |
| Catholic Christian | 3,054 | 1.0% | 1,617 | 0.7% | -1,437 | -0.3% |
| Orthodox Christian | 15,295 | 5.2% | 12,140 | 5.2% | -3,155 | +0.0% |
| Evangelical | 147 | 0.1% | 679 | 0.3% | +532 | +0.2% |
| Total Christian* | 18,591 | 6.3% | 14,624 | 6.3% | -3,967 | +0.0% |
| Atheists | 9,679 | 3.3% | 10,167 | 4.4% | +488 | +1.1% |
| Believers without denomination | 30,161 | 10.2% | 40,747 | 17.5% | +10,586 | +7.3% |
| Total Non-religious | 39,840 | 13.5% | 50,914 | 21.9% | +11,074 | +8.4% |
| Not stated / other** | 45,331 | 15.3% | 40,723 | 17.5% | -4,608 | +2.2% |
| TOTAL | 295,827 | 100% | 232,580 | 100% | -63,247 | – |
Related articles
This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Elbasan County, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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