Fier County

Fier County (; ), officially the County of Fier (), is a county in the Southern Region of the Republic of Albania. It is the eighth largest by area and the third most populous of the twelve counties, with about 240,000 people within an area of . The county borders on the Adriatic Sea to the west, the counties of Tirana to the north, Elbasan to the northeast, Berat to the east, Gjirokastër to the southeast and Vlorë to the south. It is divided into six municipalities, Fier, Divjakë, Lushnjë, Mallakastër, Patos and Roskovec, all of whom incorporate 42 administrative units.

Geography

Until 2000, Fier County was subdivided into three districts: Fier, Lushnjë, and Mallakastër. Before 2015, it consisted of 42 municipalities.

Economy Fier County maintains a relatively strong economy within Albania with agriculture and heavy industry serving as a backbone of the area during the communist era. Wages in the county are above the Albanian average. More recently, a service-based economy has become more prominent locally as well as small-scale manufacturing by foreign companies.

Fier additionally has been the home of power-generation in Albania with the construction of the Fier Power Plant during the communist era. Although it was decommissioned in 2007, a joint Greek-Albanian venture was announced in 2023 to revitalize these thermal plants to diversify Albania’s electrical industry.

Demography

According to the last national census from 2023, Fier County had 240,377 inhabitants. Of the makeup, 96% identified as Albanians, 0.89% as Roma Gypsy or Balkan Egyptian, 0.20% of a South Slavic ethnicity (Serbs, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Bulgarians), 0.20% Aromanian, and 0.07% Greek. Religion

Between the 2011 and 2023 censuses in Fier, the religious composition experienced several changes. The proportion of Sunni Muslims saw a decrease from 48.5% to 39.0%. In contrast, the presence of Bektashi Muslims significantly increased from 1.0% to 5.9%. The share of Catholic Christians decreased from 2.0% to 0.8%, while Orthodox Christians saw a slight increase from 13.8% to 16.0%. Evangelical Christians witnessed a growth from 0.1% to 0.4%.

Notably, there was a considerable expansion in the segment of the population identifying as believers without denomination, which more than doubled from 7.2% to 18.1%. The proportion of atheists also increased from 3.6% to 5.0%. Conversely, there was a marked decrease in the percentage of individuals who preferred not to answer, falling from 20.9% to 12.9%, and those whose religious affiliation was not stated or available also decreased from 2.9% to 1.9%.

+ Population of Fier according to religious group (2011–2023) Religion group Census 2011 Census 2023 Difference (2023−2011) Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage Sunni Muslim 150,559 48.5% 93,754 39.0% -56,805 -9.5% Bektashi Muslim 3,137 1.0% 14,130 5.9% +10,993 +4.9% Total Muslim 153,696 49.5% 107,884 44.9% -45,812 -4.6% Catholic Christian 6,149 2.0% 1,893 0.8% -4,256 -1.2% Orthodox Christian 42,695 13.8% 38,336 16.0% -4,359 +2.2% Evangelical 331 0.1% 886 0.4% +555 +0.3% Other Christian 174 0.1% 398 0.2% +224 +0.1% Total Christian* 49,349 15.9% 41,513 17.3% -7,836 +1.4% Atheists 11,190 3.6% 11,980 5.0% +790 +1.4% Believers without denomination 22,186 7.2% 43,452 18.1% +21,266 +10.9% Total Non-religious 33,376 10.8% 55,432 23.1% +22,056 +12.3% Prefer not to answer 64,960 20.9% 31,102 12.9% -33,858 -8.0% Not stated / Not available** 8,892 2.9% 4,446 1.9% -4,446 -1.0% TOTAL 310,331 100% 240,377 100% -69,954 –

Fier County

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