Albania, Europe's champion in "mortar and bricks", builds 2.5 times more than the EU average

Albania continued to have the highest share of construction in the economy in Europe in 2025, significantly separating itself from both the countries of the region and the European Union.

According to Eurostat data, construction accounted for 12.6% of Albania's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2025, compared to an average of only 5% in the European Union.

In relation to the size of the economy, the weight of construction in Albania is thus about 2.5 times higher than the EU average. No other country included in Eurostat data comes close to Albania's level.

Romania ranks next with 8.6%, while Kosovo, third in the European ranking, had construction as much as 7.8% of GDP.

Albania also secedes from the Balkans

Even in the Western Balkans, where construction plays an important role in some economies, Albania's gap is large.

Kosovo ranks closest, with a share of 7.8% of GDP, almost 5 percentage points less than Albania. In North Macedonia, construction accounted for 6.6% of the economy in 2025.

In the rest of the region, the contribution is much lower. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, construction accounted for 4.8% of GDP, in Serbia 4.6%, while Montenegro had the smallest share in the Western Balkans, with only 3.8%.

Thus, the weight of construction in Albania is about 1.6 times higher than in Kosovo, almost twice as high as in North Macedonia, about 2.7 times that of Serbia, and more than three times the level of Montenegro.

Even Croatia, which has experienced a strong investment cycle in construction and tourism, was at 6.6%, almost half the level of Albania.

In the EU, Romania has the highest construction weight

Among European Union countries, Romania had the highest share of construction in the economy in 2025, with 8.6% of GDP, but still about 4 percentage points less than Albania.

Romania was followed by Slovakia with 7.7%, Lithuania with 6.7%, Croatia with 6.6%, while Poland and Slovenia were at 6.2%. Austria had a share of 5.6%, Latvia 5.5%, the Czech Republic and Estonia each 5.4%, while Spain and Sweden each 5.3%.

In the EU's largest economies, construction accounts for a much more limited share of economic activity. In Italy it accounted for 5.1% of GDP, in France 5%, while in Germany only 4.5%.

At the other end of the ranking is Greece, where construction accounted for only 2.1% of GDP in 2025. It was followed by Ireland with 2.6% and Malta with 3.4%.

In Denmark, the sector accounted for 4.4% of the economy, while in Portugal, Germany and Bulgaria it was around 4.5%.

Even outside the EU, even European economies with relatively high activity in this sector do not reach the Albanian level. In Iceland, construction accounted for 7.4% of GDP, in Moldova 7.2%, in Turkey 5.9%, in Norway 4.7% and in Switzerland 4.5%.

Unsustainable growth led by construction

The high weight of construction has become one of the most distinctive features of the Albanian economic model in recent years. In parallel, industry has lost ground and has a lower role in the economy than in most countries in the region and the European Union.

The high role of construction in the structure of the economy was also reflected in its contribution to growth in 2025. According to INSTAT data processed by "Monitor", construction contributed 0.54 percentage points to economic growth, while real estate activities contributed 0.45 percentage points.

The two sectors together provided almost 1 percentage point of the total growth of about 3.9%. In the same year, the real economy sectors expanded by only about 1.1%, while the main part of the growth came from public administration and net taxes, which provided about 72% of the economic expansion.

Residential investments, large infrastructure projects and the expansion of tourist construction, especially in coastal areas, have kept the sector's activity high, part of which has resulted in it being financed by informal financing, according to SPAK's findings.

Although construction is making a significant contribution to economic growth, its share in employment is minimal. According to data from the 2024 structural enterprise survey, construction provided only 7.4% of employment, around 77 thousand people, while real estate had no more than 5 thousand employees, although the two together provided around a quarter of the year's economic growth.

In contrast, two very important sectors for employment, "agriculture" and "manufacturing and industry", have made a negative contribution to the economy, having been in decline for two years.

According to INSTAT data, agriculture contracted by 2% in 2025, for the fifth consecutive year, while industry shrank in total by 1.6%, for the second consecutive year, while an important part of it, manufacturing, has been declining for three consecutive years.

INSTAT reports that out of 1.04 million employed in the country, 33.8% of them are in agriculture, or 352 thousand people (these are mainly reported as self-employed). Industry in total has 124 thousand employees, or 12% of the total. These two sectors employ a total of 475 thousand employees, or 45% of the total./ Monitor