Republic of Albania, Republika e Shqipërisë. 3,154,000. National or official language: Tosk Albanian. Literacy rate: 85%. Blind population: 2,000. Deaf population: 204,565 (1998). The number of individual languages listed for Albania is 7. Of those, all are living languages.
Albanian cuisine is excellent, with both Ottoman and Italian influences evident. There are many good restaurants throughout the country, although obviously in smaller towns the choice is more limited than in the cities. Vegetarians will find themselves eating a lot of salad; luckily for them, Albanian tomatoes and cucumber are delicious.
Water resources of Albania are abundant, almost in all the regions of the country, with an uneven seasonal distribution. The available quantity of surface water, and to a less extent of groundwater also, strongly decreases during the months of summer. Thus, only about 6-9 % of the annual runoff is observed during the dry season (July-September).