Counties (Albanian: qarqe or qarqet), also sometimes known as prefectures (prefekturë), are the first-level administrative subdivisions of Albania, replacing the earlier districts.

Since its Declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, Albania has reorganized its domestic administrative divisions 21 times.

The primary division until mid-2000 was into districts (Albanian: rrethe), whose number, size, and importance varied over time.

[1] The current status of the counties[2] is based on the 1998 constitution and was implemented on 31 July 2000.

This was revised in 2014, so that the 2015 local elections divided the counties into municipalities (bashki) at the regional level and administrative units (njësi administrative) for local government.