Algeria is on the northern coast of Africa bordering
the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Tunisia and Libya to the east; Niger and Mali to the south; and Mauritania,
Western Sahara, and Morocco to the west. Algeria is
slightly less than three and a half times the size of
Texas and it is the second largest country in Africa.
Algeria won its independence from France in 1962 after almost eight years of fighting for its freedom. The country has a republic form of government with the president being elected by popular vote to a five-year term and eligible for a second term. The capital is Algiers which is located on the Mediterranean Sea. The currency is the Algerian dinar.
The July 2007 estimate of the population was 33,333,216 with a population growth rate of 1.2 percent. The current life expectancy is 73.52 years with women outliving men by just over three years.
Arabic is the official language with French and Berber dialects also being spoken. Algeria has a 69.9 percent literacy rate of people over the age of 15 with 20 percent more men being literate than women. Islam is the state religion, 99 percent of the population are Sunni Muslims. The remaining population is Christian and Jewish.
The Sahara Desert, the world’s largest desert, covers over 80 percent of Algeria.
Web Sites
- Arab.net
- CIA: The World Factbook
- U.S. Department of State
- Library of Congress Country Studies
- BBC News Country Profile
Catalog
Search the library's catalog for Algeria.
Databases
Enter Algeria in these databases:
- Europa World Year Book
- Gale Virtual Reference Library
- Grolier
- MasterFILE Premier
- Proquest
- Sirs
- Student Resource Center Gold