TIRANA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Albania's population as of Jan. 1 of this year was 2,870,324, registering a fall of 0.2 percent compared to a year ago, Albanian Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, said Tuesday.

INSTAT experts said in a report that Albania's population is shrinking significantly due to the lower number of births and larger number of people emigrating.

According to INSTAT, the number of new born babies in 2017 was 30,869 nationwide, marking a decline of 2.7 percent compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, INSTAT said that the number of deaths in 2017 was 22,232, registering an increase of 3.9 percent compared to a year ago.

"Last year, the natural increase of the population (ratio between births and deaths) was 8,637, registering a fall of 16.5 percent compared to a year ago," INSTAT experts explained in the report, noting that the declining trend continues since some years.

The experts also contributed emigration to the shrinking, adding that 39,905 people left the country in 2017.

On the other hand, economy experts see such changes as a threat to country's pension scheme as well as the labor market.

According to them, the planning of a pension scheme for the future will be difficult, while the country's economy will get less competitive in the region due to the aging of population. Enditem