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People
Cultural Demography
Algeria lies at the geographic center of the Arab Maghreb, the grouping of states in the western part of North Africa. The large majority of the population, which total approximately 35.5 million, lives primarily along the Mediterranean coast. The overall population density of the country is 11.7 persons per square kilometer, but does not reflect the regional differences in density. The heavily inhabited northern part of the country hosts more than 90 percent of the population. The Sahara desert covers over 85 percent of the territory.
The main inhabitants of Algeria are Muslim Arabs, but the country also has a large Berber minority. Although a significant minority of the population asserts a separate Berber identity, the majority the distinction between the two groups is non-existent due to centuries of intermarriage. Together, Arab-Berbers and Berbers comprise over 99 percent of Algeria's population, with Europeans constituting the remaining one percent.
The official language is Arabic, but both Berber dialects and French are also widely spoken. French has traditionally been the language of education, commerce and diplomacy, although its use at the expense of Arabic is increasingly disfavored.
The state religion is Sunni Islam and almost all Algerians follow that faith, but there are also small minorities of Christians and Jews.
Human Development
In terms of health and welfare, Algeria's infant mortality rate is 26.75 deaths for every 1,000 live births. According to the CIA World Factbook, the annual population growth rate was estimated at 1.18 percent in recent years. Life expectancy at birth for the total population was estimated at 74.26 years of age (72.57 years for males and 76.04 years for females).
The country's literacy rate for the total population is 69.9 percent, but there are measurable gender differences that are not reflected by this figure. Generally speaking, the literacy rate of males - at 79.6 percent - is substantially higher than that of females, which is 60.1 percent. Of note is the fact that access to education among women is limited, and on a comparative basis, it has clearly declined in the last few decades. By way of illustration, female literacy rates declined 15 percent from the 1980s to the present.
About percent of 5.8 GDP in this country is spent on health expenditures; about 4.7 percent of GDP in this country is spent on education. Access to water and sanitation in this country is regarded to be generally good.
One notable indicator used to measure a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Algeria in the medium human development category, at 84th place, much improved from in recent years when it was 104th place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com . See Bibliography for list of general research sources.
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