And it's an exponential process, for every 1 person, 5 probably leave. My hometown was nearly 100k in the 80s, down to 50k if that by now. And it's mostly elderly, children, who grow up, go to the capital or just immigrate.
Baltics, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Romania and many other places are developing fine and less and less people are emigrating.
And the picture definitely is nowhere near as depressing as Albania and this region in particular.
Birthrates are low.
And the fact countries can't use protectionist measures inside EU does not help either.
Abandoned cities will be everywhere over the next century. Especially after the population collapse in Asia.
On a slightly related note, I’d rather point the finger at urbanization - in my short lifetime I’ve witnessed multiple small villages (1.5 - 2k population) pretty much disappear as the younger generation moved out for multiple different reasons.