Tirana City

Tirana is the capital and most populous city of Albania. The city is also the capital of the surrounding county of Tirana, one of 12 constituent counties of the country. Tirana was founded as a city in 1614, but the region that today corresponds to the city territory has been continuously inhabited since the Bronze Age. As most of Albania, the area was populated by several Illyrian tribes, but had no importance within Illyria. Indeed, it was annexed by Rome and became an integral part of the Roman Empire following the Illyrian Wars. The heritage of that period is still evident and represented by the Mosaics of Tirana. Further later in the 5th and 6th century, a Paleo Christian basilica was built around this site. Until the 20th century, the city did not attain much significance, when the Congress of Lushnjë proclaimed it as the country's capital, after the country's declaration of independence in 1912. Being a primate city, Tirana is considered the economic and cultural hub of Albania, due to its significant location and importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education, service, research and healthcare. All of the country's largest companies, media and scientific institutions have their headquarters in the city. As defined by the Institute of Statistics of Albania in 2011, the urban area of the city included 526,017 people. The rural areas of Tirana County, which are known as the suburbs of Tirana, included 223,348 people. Altogether, the figure for the county was 749,365 people. The number of women slightly exceeds the number of men in the county, with 370,587 men and 378,778 women. Tirana is home to many ethnicities from all over Southern Europe. Approximately 84.10% (630,203) of the population was of Albanian descent, 0.35% (2,596) Greeks, 0.11% (856) Aromanians, 0.07% (513) Macedonians and 0.03% (198) Italians, with 0.14% (1.042) not declaring their ethnicity.