Algeria Flag

Algeria

Capital:
Algiers
Continent:
Africa
Region(s):
Northern Africa
Largest Cities:
Algiers, Boumerdas, Oran
Abbreviation:
DZA

Algeria is a country in Africa, known for the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean coastline. It has a population of 47.4 million, making it the 33rd largest country in the world. Its official language is Portuguese, and the capital is Algiers. Algeria has a oil and gas-based economy with developing industrial sector.

47.4M
Total Population
33
Population Rank
19.92
Density (km²)
621K 1.5%
Annual Population Growth

Population of Algeria

Algeria's population structure shows a slightly higher male to female ratio of 1.04 to 1, with a median male age of 29.35 years old and a median female age of 29.45 years old. The highest concentration of adults under 75 years old is in the 38 and 37 year-old age groups, while the lowest concentration is in the 74 and 73 year-old age groups.

Algeria Population

Data after 2022 is projected based on recent change

Algeria Population Clock

Algeria Population*
47,195,760
Births per Day
2,342
Deaths per Day
603
Emigrations per Day
75
Net Change per Day
1,663
2025 Population Change*
61,531

* As of 2/6/2025

1 birth

Every 36.9 seconds

1 death

Every 2.4 minutes

1 emigrant

Every 19.2 minutes

1 person

Every 52.0 seconds

Population by City

City
2025 Pop.
Algiers1,977,663
Boumerdas786,499
Oran645,984
Tebessa634,332
Constantine450,097
Biskra307,987
Setif288,461
Batna280,798
Bab Ezzouar275,630
Annaba206,570

Algeria Overview

Algeria was inhabited by several prehistoric people, including the Caspian culture, and many empires and dynasties have ruled the region over its history, such as the Romans, Byzantines and the Turkish Ottomans. At the beginning of the 20th century, Algeria had 4 million people.

Today, Algeria is inhabited mostly by Arab-Berber people, with 90% of the population living in the coastal area of the north with the people in the Sahara desert concentrated in oases. There are about 1.5 million remaining nomadic and semi-nomadic people in the country. Algeria is a young country, with 1 in 4 people under the age of 15. Interestingly, women play an important role here, making up 70% of Algeria’s lawyers and 60% of its university students.

Algeria Religion, Economy and Politics

97% of the Algerian population is Muslim. There aren’t really any other religions with a significant population. The second most popular religion is Christianity with a meager 285,000 followers.

About 96,000 refugees and asylum seekers are living in Algeria, most of whom are from Western Sahara. There are also about 35,000 Chinese migrant workers and up to 165,000 Sahrawis from Western Sahara in refugee camps. Between 600,000 to 2 million Algerian Turks live in Algeria, and they are today known as Kouloughlis.

The largest concentration of Algerians outside of the country are in France, with more than 1.7 million Algerians. Algeria is the second-largest French-speaking country in the world in terms of the number of speakers. An estimated 11 million Algerians read and write in French.

Algeria Population History

The French colonized Algeria during the mid-1800s and around 50,000 emmigrated there during that time. By the 1900s, Europeans accounted for 20% of the population. The French were eventually ousted in 1945 during a war than killed at least 700,000 Algerians.

The Algerians experienced a civil war from 1991-2002 that killed roughly 100,000.