The Western Balkans are facing a deepening demographic crisis, with birth rates falling sharply despite policies taken by governments to support families. Albania is leading the decline in the region and ranks among the countries with the largest birth rate declines in Europe. Since the late 90s, the country's birth rate has halved, while a similar trend, albeit at different rates, has been observed in Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The decline in birth rates is bringing another problem: families are becoming smaller and the number of children being born is not enough to maintain the same number of inhabitants in the future. Faced with this situation, governments in the region have undertaken policies to encourage births. Serbia offers significant financial support to families, especially for the third and fourth child. In Albania, a birth bonus is applied, while Kosovo and Montenegro have monthly child support schemes. However, postnatal payments do not seem to be enough to change the trend. For many couples, the decision to have children is related to economic security, employment opportunities, housing costs and the difficulty of balancing family life with a career.

Another factor that is deepening the crisis is emigration. Many young people are leaving the Western Balkan countries at the very age when they would be starting families. In parallel, the aging population is also reducing the number of women of reproductive age.

For this reason, the demographic crisis is becoming a long-term problem for the region, which cannot be solved through the policies of a single government mandate alone. The Balkans is not only losing its current inhabitants, but also the generations that should be born tomorrow.