Albanian Orthodox Church challenges 2023 census accuracy

Tirana, July 18, 2024 - The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania has raised serious concerns over the 2023 population census results, disputing the reported figures on religious affiliations.

In a statement, the Church argued that the census data vastly underreports the number of Orthodox Christians in the country. They cited multiple issues during the registration process that led to these discrepancies.

The Church claimed that many census takers did not ask about religious beliefs and that numerous Orthodox Christians were not interviewed because they were never visited by census workers.

Pointing to their baptism records, the Church suggested that the actual number of Orthodox Christians is much higher than the census indicates. They also referred to 1927 statistics, showing that Orthodox Christians made up 22.3% of the population back then, compared to Sunni Muslims and Bektashis at 67.5%, and Catholics at 10%.

Highlighting that the question about religious affiliation was optional, the Church emphasized that over 796,000 people—about one-third of the population—did not declare their beliefs, chose not to answer, or were unavailable for the census. This, they argue, calls the census findings into question.