This article is about the demographic features of the population of Algeria, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Ninety-one percent of the Algerian population lives along the Mediterranean coast on 12% of the country's total land mass. Forty-five percent of the population is urban, and urbanization continues, despite government efforts to discourage migration to the cities. Currently, 24,182,736 Algerians live in urban area, about 1.5 million nomads live in the Saharan area.
99% of the population is classified ethnically as Arab-Berber[1] and religiously as Sunni Muslim 96%, the few non-Sunni Muslims are mainly Ibadis 1.3% from the M'Zab valley (See Islam in Algeria). A mostly foreign Roman Catholic community also about Christians especially Protestant evangelic and almost 500 Jewish, most of them live in Bejaia. The Jewish community of Algeria, which once constituted 2% of the total population, has substantially decreased due to emigration, mostly to France and Israel.
Algeria's educational system has grown rapidly since 1962; in the last 12 years, attendance has doubled to more than 5 million students. Education is free and compulsory to age 16. Despite government allocation of substantial educational resources, population pressures and a serious shortage of teachers have severely strained the system, as have terrorist attacks against the educational infrastructure during the 1990s. Modest numbers of Algerian students study abroad, primarily in Europe and Canada. In 2000, the government launched a major review of the country's educational system.
Housing and medicine continue to be pressing problems in Algeria. Failing infrastructure and the continued influx of people from rural to urban areas has overtaxed both systems. According to the UNDP, Algeria has one of the world's highest per housing unit occupancy rates for housing, and government officials have publicly stated that the country has an immediate shortfall of 1.5 million housing units.
| Year | Population | %± |
|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2010 | 35,600,000 | — |
| January 1, 2011 | 36,300,000 | +1.97% |
| January 1, 2012 | 37,100,000 | +2.20% |
Source: Office National des Statistiques (ONS)[2]
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.[3]
In a very recent study (2008) done in northwestern Algeria (Oran area),[5] the most common haplogroups observed in the Algerian population (n=102) were :
| Population | Nb | E1a | E1b1a | E1b1b1a | E1b1b1b | E1b1b1c | F | K | J1 | J2 | R1a | R1b | Q | Study |
| 1 Oran | 102 | 0 | 7.85% | 5.90% | 45.10% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22.50% | 4.90% | 1% | 11.80% | 1% | Robino et al. (2008)[7] |
| 2 Algiers | 35 | 2.85% | 0 | 11.40% | 42.85% | 0 | 11.80% | 2.85% | 22.85% | 5.70% | 0 | 0 | 0 | Arredi et al. (2004)[8] |
| 3 Tizi Ouzou | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 47.35% | 10.50% | 10.50% | 0 | 15.80% | 0 | 0 | 15.80% | 0 | Arredi et al. (2004) |
| Total | 156 | 0.65% | 5.10% | 6.40% | 44.90% | 1.30% | 9.58% | 0.65% | 21.80% | 4.50% | 0.65% | 9.60% | 0.65% |
In a recent genetic study by Semino et al. (2004), Algerian Arabs and Berbers were found to have more genetic similarities than was once believed.[9] This led scientists to conclude that the North African population was mainly Berber in origin and that the population had been 'Arabised', by the migration of Near-Eastener people.
The Haplogroup J1, marker of the Semitic population is found at 35% in Algeria , which is one of the most common haplogroup of the country along with E1b1b (Berber marker).
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",[10]
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This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2009 edition". and the As of 2003[update] U.S. Department of State website.
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