Living costs in the capital are very expensive

Living costs in the capital are very expensive
Living costs in the Albanian capital are very high. To make it to the end of the month, a household of four needs at least 85.344, whereby the cost for a single member of the family is 21 thousand lek a month. These figures are confirmed by the Institute of Statistics in the Household Budget Survey, according to which, it’s the district of Tirana where the average monthly consumption expenses are the highest in the country. This proves the idea that urbanization and living in the metropolis costs more. Meanwhile, Tirana is followed by Durres in terms of the average consumption expenses. In this district, a family of four needs at least 77.933 thousand lek to make their ends meet. Durres is followed by the biggest city of the north, Shkodra, which also has a high cost of living. The average household in Shkodra needs 75.503 thousand lek a month to buy food, clothes and to pay for other basic necessities. In other words, a person from Shkodra needs around 18 thousand lek for his monthly normal expenses. Meanwhile, the districts with the lowest living costs are Gjirokastra and Elbasan. In each of these districts, a family only needs 57 thousand lek to make it to the end of the month. This shows a clear correlation between urbanization and distances between the most developed areas of a country and the cost of living.

Traditional families? Kukes still has them with an average of 5,2 members

The traditional family is fading, at least referring to the numbers of its members, which are shrinking. Meanwhile, there are still several districts in the country which are preserving the “format” that was inherited from the past, a family with many members. This has also been confirmed by the Household Budget Survey, according to which, last year, in 2016, there has been an average number of 3,7 members as opposed to 3,8 in the previous year, in 2015. “The district with the largest number of family members is Kukes, with an average of 5,2 members, while Vlora and Gjirokastra have the lowest number of members, with an average of 3,4”, experts of INSTAT say. Meanwhile, experts also say that there exists a connection between the number of household members and expenses that a household needs to make it to the end of the month. Another finding is that in northern areas of the country, families have more members than in the south of the country. Thus, the district of Kukes is followed by Dibra, with an average of 4,9 members per household. Dibra is followed by Lezha with 4 members and Shkodra with 3,9 members. All of these figures are higher compared to the south of the country. So, the district of Vlora has an average of 3,6 members per household and Fier has an average of 3,4 members per household.

People living on their own spend more on food and rent

People who live on their own have a higher cost of living than those who live as a family. The reason for this is that food and accommodation expenses are higher. In the case of a household, a part of these costs is reduced. This has recently been confirmed by the Institute of Statistics, according to which, for person living on his own, around 51.3% of the monthly expenses go for food and up to 15% go for rent. These sorts of costs are lower for a family with children, where food costs amount to 45.3% of the household budget, while costs for accommodation, which include power supply or water supply, amount to 9% of the total household budget. But, it must be said that a household has other costs, which for a single person are lower. Here, we can mention “education” , for which households spend up to 5.5% of monthly expenses, while a single person doesn’t have this cost on the list. Meanwhile, a household with children spends up to 7% of the total household budget on transport, while for single people, this cost is lower.

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