Albania is an ethnically homogeneous country, where the overwhelming majority of the population speaks Albanian, which is also the official language. It has two distinct dialects: Tosk, spoken in the south, and Gheg, spoken in the north. However, many Albanians can also speak foreign languages as Italian, Greek, French, German, and English, amongst others, due to the high numbers of Albanian diaspora and Albanian communities throughout the Balkans.

Although many ethnic Albanians (from within Albania and the wider Balkans and diaspora) around the world speak more than two languages and have been recognised as polyglots, Albania is the fourth highest nation in Europe in terms of the percentage of monolingual inhabitants, with 59.9% speaking only one language. Italian is widely spoken throughout Albania. Greek, the language of the Greek national minority, is focused in southern Albania; however, many Albanian nationals speak the Greek language due to immigration. Nowadays, knowledge of English is growing very rapidly, especially among the youth. Various languages are spoken by ethnic minorities: Greek, Bulgarian, Aromanian, Macedonian, etc.

The Article 14 of the Albanian Constitution states that "The official language in the Republic of Albania is Albanian." In the 2023 population census, 91.07% reported Albanian as the language spoken at home. 1.54% declared to speak at home another language, 0.57% multiple languages, 1.21% gave no answer and 5.59% were unavailable.

Standard Albanian is based in the Tosk dialect, spoken in the south. Gheg is spoken in the north and also by Kosovo Albanians and in Croatia Arbanasi, Upper Reka dialect, Istrian. The traditional border between the two dialects is the Shkumbin River. Although they are somewhat different, they are mutually intelligible. Other notable varieties, all of which are sub-dialects of Tosk, include Lab, Cham, Arbëresh spoken in Italy and Arvanitika, Arvanitic in Southern Greece.

Greek is the largest minority language of Albania. The Greeks of Albania speak a modern southern Greek dialect, known as Northern Epirote Greek. Alongside Albanian loanwords, it retains some archaic forms and words that are no longer used in Standard Modern Greek, as well as in the Greek dialects of southern Epirus. Despite the relatively small distances between the various towns and villages, there exists some dialectal variation, most noticeably in accent. In addition, many Albanians have knowledge of Greek, mainly due to past immigration to Greece. Greek is co-official in two municipalities in Southern Albania.

There are up to 200,000 Aromanians in Albania, a figure which includes people who do not speak the Aromanian language. They mostly live in the southern and central regions of the country. The Aromanians, under the name "Vlachs", are a recognized cultural minority in the Albanian law.

According to the 1989 census, there were approximately 5,000 Macedonian language-speakers in Albania. Most of these people live in the southeastern part of the country in the Lake Prespa region. Macedonians are an officially recognized minority in the Pustec Municipality. However, only the Macedonians living in Pustec are allowed to declare their nationality and language. Ethnic Macedonian organization claim that 120,000 to 350,000 Macedonians live in Albania. They are politically represented by the Alliance of Macedonians for European Integration, which in the 2011 elections received around 2,500 votes.

About 10,000 Romani people live in Albania today. They have preserved the language, despite the lack of education in that language.