Self-employment, through opening a shop, service unit or providing professional services, is the most common form of livelihood in Albania.

According to data from INSTAT, published by the research website Monitor, by the end of 2020 almost 32% of workers in Albania were self-employed.

Other Eurostat data show that Albania has the highest self-employment rate in Europe and more than double the European Union average of 13.3% at the end of 2020. In second place in Europe is Greece, with 28.4% of all self-employed people, followed by Italy with 20.1% and Turkey with 19.3%.

From the surrounding area, the highest self-employment rate is in Serbia, with 19.2%, followed by montenegro With 17.2%, While the lowest is in skopje With 17.2% (data Are missing for kosovo And bosnia and Herzegovina).

The self-employed, mainly with basic (8/9 Years) education

Most self-employed people in Albania have low levels of education. According to INSTAT, almost 41% of workers are people with compulsory education who earn their living through self-employment. Even those with secondary education tend to start their own businesses, with self-employment accounting for 34% of this category. It is different for people with tertiary education, who seem to find it easier to find work in businesses they have not started themselves, with only 12% of these workers being self-employed.

Men are more likely to start a business, with 38% of them being self-employed, compared to 25% of women. By age group, the highest rate of self-employment occurs among people over 65 (60%) and the lowest for young people up to 24 (20%).

European Union

In the second quarter Of 2021, 13% of workers aged 20-64 in the EU were self-employed, according to eurostat. The Remaining workers were mainly classified as employees (86%) with a smaller Proportion (less Than 1%) working as contributing family workers. Among the self-employed, there were more men than women (67% Vs. 33%). In Contrast, there was a fairly equal gap between men and women classified as employees (52% vs. 48%).

Looking at the data by age group, a higher percentage of people aged 55-64 were self-employed (17%) compared to other age groups. 4% of people aged 15-24 were self-employed and 13% of people aged 25-54.

Furthermore, self-employment appears to be slightly more common among workers with a low level of education (16% of those with a low level of education were self-employed compared to 12% of those with a high level of education and 13% with a high level of education).