Ninety-one percent of the Algerian population lives along the Mediterranean coast on 12% of the country's total land mass. 75% of the population is urban, and urbanization continues, despite government efforts to discourage migration to the cities.
Algeria's educational system has grown rapidly since 1962. In 2022, there are almost 11 million pupils and 2 million students.[4] Education is free and compulsory to age 16. Modest numbers of Algerian students study abroad, primarily in France and French-speaking Canada. In 2000, the government launched a major review of the country's educational system.
Arabs make up 73.6% of the population of Algeria, Berbers make up 23.2%, Arabized Berbers make up 3%, and others make up 0.2%.[1]Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks as well as other ethnic groups have contributed to the ethnic makeup and genetic structure of the Algerian population.[13] Descendants of Andalusian refugees are also present in the population of Algiers and other cities.[14] Moreover, Spanish was spoken by these Aragonese and CastillianMorisco descendants deep into the 18th century, and even Catalan was spoken at the same time by CatalanMorisco descendants in the small town of Grish El-Oued.[15]
Algerian women in traditional clothes
The Arab population of Algeria is a result of the inflow of sedentary and nomadic Arab tribes from Arabia since the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th century with a major wave in the 11th century.[16] The majority of Algerians identify with an Arab-based identity due to the 20th century Arab nationalism.[17][18] The ethnic Berbers are divided into many groups with varying languages. The largest of these are the Kabyles, who live in the Kabylia region east of Algiers, the Chaoui of North-East Algeria, the Tuaregs in the southern desert and the Shenwa people of North Algeria.[19][page needed]
During the colonial period, there was a large (15% in 1960)[20]European population who became known as Pied-Noirs. They were primarily of French, Spanish and Italian origin. Almost all of this population left during the war of independence or immediately after its end.[21]
Islam is the predominant religion with 99% of the population.[3] There are about 150,000 Ibadis in the M'zab Valley in the region of Ghardaia.[22]
There were an estimated 10,000 Christians in Algeria in 2008.[23] In a 2009 study the UNO estimated there were 45,000 Catholics and 50,000–100,000 Protestants in Algeria.[24] A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria.[25]
Following the Revolution and Algerian independence, all but 6,500 of the country's 140,000 Jews left the country, of whom about 90% moved to France with the Pied-Noirs and 10% moved to Israel.[citation needed]
Traffic sign in Isser in three languages: Arabic, Berber, and French
Arabic and Berber serve as both official languages and national languages in Algeria.[26][27]
Algerian Arabic (Algerian Dziriya or Darja) is the language used by the majority of the population. Colloquial Algerian Arabic has many Berber and French loanwords.
Although French has no official status, Algeria is the second-largest Francophone country in the world in terms of speakers,[28] and French is widely used in government, media (newspapers, radio, local television), and both the education system (from primary school onwards) and academia due to Algeria's colonial history. It can be regarded as the de facto co-official language of Algeria. In 2008, 11.2 million Algerians could read and write in French.[29] An Abassa Institute study in April 2000 found that 60% of households could speak and understand French. In recent decades the government has reinforced the study of French and TV programs have reinforced use of the language.
Algeria emerged as a bilingual state after 1962.[30] Colloquial Arabic is spoken by about 83% of the population and Berber by 27.4%.[31]
In a recent genetic study by Semino et al. (2004), the Haplogroup J1 associated with the diffusion of Arabs was found at 35% in Algeria,[38][39] which is one of the most common haplogroups in Algeria, like the rest of the Maghreb, along with E1b1b.
Recent studies on the common J1 Y chromosome suggest it arrived over ten thousand years ago in North Africa, and M81/E3b2 is a Y chromosome specific to North African ancestry, dating to the Neolithic. A thorough study by Arredi et al. (2004) which analyzed populations from Algeria concludes that the North African pattern of Y-chromosomal variation (including both E3b2 and J haplogroups is largely of Neolithic origin, which suggests that the Neolithic transition in this part of the world was accompanied by demic diffusion of Afro-Asiatic–speaking pastoralists from the Middle East. This Neolithic origin was later confirmed by Myles et al. (2005) which suggest that "contemporary Berber populations possess the genetic signature of a past migration of pastoralists from the Middle East", although later papers have suggested that this date could have been as longas ten thousand years ago, with the transition from the Oranian to the Capsian culture in North Africa.[40]
^Stearns, Peter N.; Leonard Langer, William (2001). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged (6 ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 129–131. ISBN978-0-395-65237-4.
^Deeb, Mary Jane. "Religious minorities" Algeria (Country Study). Federal Research Division, Library of Congress; Helen Chapan Metz, ed. December 1993. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^"APS"(PDF). Algeria Press Service. Archived from the original(PDF) on 22 May 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
^"Présentation de l'Algérie". French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. 23 October 2012. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
^"La mondialisation, une chance pour la francophonie". Senat.fr. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2013. () "L'Algérie, non-membre de l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, comptabilise la seconde communauté francophone au monde, avec environ 16 millions de locuteurs, suivie par la Côte d'Ivoire avec près de 12 millions de locuteurs francophones, le Québec avec 6 millions et la Belgique avec plus de 4 millions de francophones."
^"Le dénombrement des francophones"(PDF). Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Archived from the original(PDF) on 12 October 2013. () p. 9 "Nous y agrégeons néanmoins quelques données disponibles pour des pays n’appartenant pas à l’OIF mais dont nous savons, comme pour l’Algérie (11,2 millions en 20081)," and "1. Nombre de personnes âgées de cinq ans et plus déclarant savoir lire et écrire le français, d’après les données du recensement de 2008 communiquées par l’Office national des statistiques d’Algérie."
^Robino, C; Crobu, F; Di Gaetano, C; Bekada, A; Benhamamouch, S; Cerutti, N; Piazza, A; Inturri, S; Torre, C (2008). "Analysis of Y-chromosomal SNP haplogroups and STR haplotypes in an Algerian population sample". International Journal of Legal Medicine. 122 (3): 251–5. doi:10.1007/s00414-007-0203-5. PMID17909833. S2CID11556974.
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