Albania is facing a striking paradox: the country is rapidly catching up with the European Union in terms of the education level of its young people, but a significant share of the human capital it produces is leaving for richer European labor markets.
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| An image representing young students in Albania, a demographic boasting a 43.2% tertiary education rate that approaches European Union standards while simultaneously facing the ongoing challenge of brain drain. |
The difference is just 1.6 percentage points.
On paper, Albania looks almost European when it comes to the education of its younger generation.
But once this figure is compared with income levels, employment opportunities and economic prospects, the picture becomes far less encouraging.
Albania is managing to educate a large share of its young population, but it is struggling to keep them.
Albania Ranks Above Italy in Higher Education
One of the most striking comparisons is with Italy.
In Albania, 43.2% of people aged 25–34 have completed higher education, compared with just 31.1% in Italy.
Italy therefore ranks among the countries with the lowest share of young adults with tertiary education in Europe, ahead of only Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania.
Albania also ranks slightly above Greece, where the figure stands at 42.8%, and even above Germany, where it is 40.9%.
The comparison is particularly significant because Italy and Greece have historically been two of the main destinations for Albanian emigrants since the 1990s.
In other words, a significant number of Albanians now living, studying and working in these countries come from a country whose younger generation, at least according to this indicator, has a higher rate of tertiary education.
Albania Is Ahead of Most of the Western Balkans
The available data also place Albania ahead of most Western Balkan countries.
In Serbia, 39.1% of people aged 25–34 had completed tertiary education in 2025.
In North Macedonia, the figure was 38.8%, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina it was only 28%.
For Montenegro, Eurostat does not provide newer data after 2020, when the figure stood at 38.4%.
The comparison should be made with some methodological caution. Albania’s figure comes from the 2023 Census, while Eurostat’s figures for the other countries are primarily based on the Labour Force Survey.
Nevertheless, Albania’s national statistics agency INSTAT also confirms that 43.2% of people aged 25–34 have completed higher education.
That figure was close to the EU level of 43.1% recorded for the same age group in 2023 and only 1.8 percentage points below the EU’s 2030 target of 45%.
The EU Has Almost Reached Its 2030 Education Target
Across the European Union, the share of young adults with tertiary education has increased significantly over the past two decades.
In 2005, only 27.2% of people aged 25–34 had completed higher education.
By 2025, that figure had reached 44.8%, an increase of 17.6 percentage points.
The EU has set a target of having at least 45% of people aged 25–34 with a tertiary qualification by 2030.
With the 2025 figure at 44.8%, the EU is now just 0.2 percentage points away from that target.
But Albania faces a different challenge.
Its number of graduates is growing, while its ability to retain them remains weak.
Albania Is Educating Its Young People, Europe Is Benefiting From Them
The problem is increasingly described as brain drain: the departure of educated and skilled people who could otherwise contribute to the country’s economic development.
The European Commission has also identified the emigration of skilled workers as a factor contributing to labor shortages in important sectors of Albania’s economy.
The 2025 Albania Report specifically highlights the emigration of skilled workers as a factor contributing to the country’s “brain drain”.
This creates a troubling paradox.
Albania is investing in the education of a new generation, while richer European economies are often the ones that ultimately benefit from the skills and qualifications acquired by those young people.
The question is therefore no longer simply how many Albanians are going to university.
The more important question is: how many will remain in Albania after graduating?
Young Women Are Leading Europe’s Education Gains
The European figures also reveal a significant gender gap in higher education.
In 2025, 50.5% of women aged 25–34 in the EU had completed tertiary education, compared with 39.3% of men.
The gap was therefore more than 11 percentage points.
Where people live also makes a significant difference.
In EU cities, 55% of people aged 25–34 had completed tertiary education. In towns and suburbs, the figure fell to 38.4%, while in rural areas it stood at only 32.9%.
The figures show how strongly access to education is linked to urban centers and the economic opportunities they offer.
Ireland and Luxembourg Lead, Romania Lags Behind
The differences between European countries remain substantial.
Between 2005 and 2025, every EU member state recorded an increase in the share of young people with tertiary education.
Malta recorded the largest increase, at 29.9 percentage points, followed by Luxembourg with 28 points and Ireland with 25.9.
At the other end of the scale, Finland recorded an increase of only 0.7 percentage points, while Romania and Estonia increased by 9.5 and 11.2 points respectively.
In 2025, Ireland and Luxembourg were close to 66%, while Romania remained below 25%.
The figures demonstrate that major differences in educational attainment persist even within the European Union.
Albania’s Real Challenge Is Keeping Its Graduates
Albania’s challenge is therefore no longer simply increasing the number of university graduates.
The bigger challenge is giving those graduates a reason to stay.
A country can have universities, degrees and an increasingly educated generation. But if young people leave as soon as they acquire valuable skills and qualifications, the investment in human capital ultimately benefits other economies.
This may be one of Albania’s greatest paradoxes today:
Albania is catching up with Europe in education, while Europe is increasingly benefiting from the educated young people Albania cannot afford to lose.