Albania is an independent republic of the western
Balkan peninsula of southeastern
Europe, with a coastline on the
Adriatic Sea and a population of around 3.5 million on a largely mountainous and forested area of 28,747 sq. km.
Tiranė is the capital, with 300,000 inhabitants: other principal cities are Durrės, Elbasan and Shkodėr, each with 100,000, Vlorė (90,000) and Korēė (80,000). Albania is Europe's poorest country, with half of the economically-active population still engaged in agriculture.
Albanians, a predominantly Muslim people thought to be descended from the area's ancient Illyrian population, also inhabit the neighboring
Kosovo province of Serbia, western Macedonia and areas of Greece and Montenegro.
An independent republic since 1912 except for periods of monarchy (1928-1939) and Italian rule (1939-1944), in 1990 Albania ended 46 years of isolationist one-party Communist government. The transition has proven difficult as weak and sometimes corrupt governments have tried to deal with severe unemployment, the collapse of a fraudulent nationwide investment scheme, widespread gangsterism, and large population movements in the form of both emigration to Italy, Greece and other countries, and massive refugee influxes from the Kosovo conflict of 1998-1999.
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