Home > Algeria

Algeria

Algeria

Algeria officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area. It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, Morocco in the northwest, and the Mediterranean Sea in the north.

Country Name

  • conventional long form: Algeria
  • conventional short form: Algeria
  • local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash Sha'biyah
  • local short form: Al Jaza'ir

Nationality

  • noun: Algerian(s)
  • adjective: Algerian

Capital

  • name: Algiers
  • geographic coordinates: 36 45 N, 3 03 E
  • time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)

Independence

  • 5 July 1962 (from France)

Population

  • 33,769,669 (July 2008 est.)

Growth rate

  • 1.209% (2008 est.)

      • HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:

      • 0.1%
      • note - no country specific models provided (2001 est.)

      Ethnic Groups

      • Arab-Berber 99%
      • European less than 1%
      • note: almost all Algerians are Berber in origin, not Arab; the minority who identify themselves as Berber live mostly in the mountainous region of Kabylie east of Algiers; the Berbers are also Muslim but identify with their Berber rather than Arab cultural heritage; Berbers have long agitated, sometimes violently, for autonomy; the government is unlikely to grant autonomy but has offered to begin sponsoring teaching Berber language in schools

      Religion

      • Sunni Muslim (state religion) 99%
      • Christian and Jewish 1%

      Language

      • Arabic (official)
      • French, Berber dialects

      Literacy

      • definition: age 15 and over can read and write
      • total population: 69.9%
      • male: 79.6%
      • female: 60.1% (2002 est.)

      Location

      • Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco and Tunisia

      Area Comperative

      • slightly less than 3.5 times the size of Texas

      Land Boundaries

      • total: 6,343 km
      • border countries: Libya 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km, Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km

      Climate

      • arid to semiarid
      • mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers along coast
      • drier with cold winters and hot summers on high plateau
      • sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common in summer

      Natural Resourses

      • petroleum
      • natural gas
      • iron ore
      • phosphates
      • uranium
      • lead
      • zinc

      Economy overview

        The hydrocarbons sector is the backbone of the economy, accounting for roughly 60% of budget revenues, 30% of GDP, and over 95% of export earnings. Algeria has the eighth-largest reserves of natural gas in the world and is the fourth-largest gas exporter; it ranks 14th in oil reserves. Sustained high oil prices in recent years have helped improve Algeria's financial and macroeconomic indicators. Algeria is running substantial trade surpluses and building up record foreign exchange reserves.

        GDP Real Growth rate

        • 4.6% (2007 est.)

        GDP Per Capita

        • $6,500 (2007 est.)

        Government type

        • Republic

        Backguound

        After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians fought through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991 balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming power. The army began a crackdown on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to begin attacking government targets. The government later allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties, but did not appease the activists who progressively widened their attacks. The fighting escalated into an insurgency, which saw intense fighting between 1992-98 and which resulted in over 100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate massacres of villagers by extremists. The government gained the upper hand by the late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000. However, small numbers of armed militants persist in confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and occasional attacks on villages. The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999 in a fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide reelection victory. Longstanding problems continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies, government inefficiencies and corruption, and the continuing activities of extremist militants. The 2006 merger of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) with al-Qaida (followed by a name change to al-Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb) signaled an increase in bombings, including high-profile, mass-casualty suicide attacks targeted against the Algerian government and Western interests. Algeria must also h3ersify its petroleum-based economy, which has yielded a large cash reserve but which has not been used to redress Algeria's many social and infrastructure problems.

        Enviorment Current Issue

        • soil erosion from overgrazing and other poor farming practices; desertification
        • dumping of raw sewage, petroleum refining wastes, and other industrial effluents is leading to the pollution of rivers and coastal waters
        • Mediterranean Sea, in particular, becoming polluted from oil wastes, soil erosion, and fertilizer runoff
        • inadequate supplies of potable water

        For more info please contact:
        African Studies
        (310) 825-3686
        africa@international.ucla.edu

        Date Posted: 9/4/2008