Demography and economic geography. – State of North Africa. The trend of the population (34,080,030 residents at the 2008 census, estimated at 39,928,947 in 2014. For Algeria 2014, please check thesciencetutor.org.
according to an estimate by UNDE SA, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs) has been growing over the last few years, and recorded an increase of 15.4% compared to 2005, with an average annual increase of 1.8% in recent years. In the demographic profile of the country there are slight reversals of trend compared to the data of the beginning of the millennium: in particular, the birth rate of more than three points higher than in 2005 (24.6 ‰ in 2012), for a fertility index of 2.8 children per woman. The death rate, on the other hand, is getting closer and closer to the values of mature industrialization countries. The slow rise in the values relating to life expectancy (71 years in 2013) which began in the 1980s continued, while infant mortality rapidly declined (21.6 ‰ in 2013, ten points less than the 2003 percentage). It is a young country (average age 27.3 years), in relation to the European world, although not among the youngest in the North African context. The incidence of the population under the age of 14, while declining slowly, continues to have a significant weight (27.7% in 2013, compared to 30.6% a decade earlier). In the hierarchy of the Human Development Index (HDI), improving compared to 2008, the Algeria it is firmly in the high-development grouping at 93rd place in 2013, with the value of 0.717.
Economic and social indicators
The structure of the urban network, a legacy of the organization of colonial exploitation, retains regional imbalances, still ensuring a greater weight for Algiers and the three regional metropolises (Oran, Constantina and Annaba) compared to smaller cities. The agglomeration of the capital (2.3 million residents in 2008) continues to grow through processes of poor suburbanization reaching, according to a 2013 estimate, the four million residents in its vast area (le grand Alger). The other large cities (with more than 100,000 residents) are 33 and, after a rapid growth since the 1980s, they have continued to attract population, in some cases considerably even in the period between the two censuses (1998-2008).: Bilda with 331,779 residents (+ 33% in ten years) and Djelfa with 289,226 residents (+ 82%).
Economic conditions. – The country continued a process of stabilization of the economic situation with a positive trend during the first decade of the 21st century. of the repayment of public debt, which went from 28.1 billion dollars in 1999 to 480 million in 2010. The Algerian economy, still subject to strict state control, has recorded an average annual increase in GDP of 3% in the last decade with an estimated growth of 3.8% for 2014: GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPA), $ 14,256 (2014). The economy always sees in the exploitation of hydrocarbons the leading sector, albeit in rapid decline: natural resources affected the country’s wealth for 23% in 2012, when only in 2008 they impacted for 41%. According to the ILO (International Labor Organization), in 2012 the total unemployment rate fell to 9.8%, halving compared to 2004, but youth unemployment at the same date was 22%, with a significant weight of women (38%), rising from 2008; for 2014, the unemployment rate was estimated to rise to 10.8%. The main axes on which investments have been made in recent years have been: the construction of large infrastructures (East-West motorway, improvement and modernization of the railway network), the fight against poverty and exclusion, through the construction of one million accommodations, the increase of the structures destined to the education and health system. Access to electricity covered almost the entire population (99.4% in 2012), while the value relating to access to drinking water has remained stable in recent years.
History. – In a situation characterized by political and institutional stalemate, the Algeria saw Abdelaziz Bouteflika (῾Abd al-῾Azīz Bū Taflīqa), in power since 1999, reconfirmed as president for his third (2009) and fourth (2014) terms of office. from the bloody civil war triggered by the Islamists in the 90s of the 20th century, Bouteflika, although in poor health since April 2013, appeared firmly in the government and the regime, with the strong support of the military, had also emerged overall unscathed from the protest movement of the Arab Spring which broke out in the first months of 2011. In fact, despite the holding of some large street demonstrations in Algiers (12 February 2011), the protests had stalled immediately after the announcement of the lifting of the state of emergency in force in the country since 1992 and the promise, not kept by the Bouteflika executive, of greater democratization of political life. The political forces in government were also unchanged: in the legislative elections of May 2012, the National Liberation Front, the President’s party and the National Democratic Rally were confirmed as the first and second parties respectively. Security in the country, meanwhile, appeared to be threatened by the terrorist actions of Islamist organizations which in January 2013 experienced a surge with the attack on the In Amenas gas field, in the Sahara desert near the border with Libya. The most active terrorist network claimed responsibility for the attack: al-Qā῾ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI). In the summer of 2013, while the country’s increasingly serious health conditions were raising concerns in the country, violent clashes broke out on the southern border with Mali, in the town of Bordj Badji Mokhtar, in a region plagued by chronic poverty and malaise. social. The commercial and tribal rivalry between the Tuareg and Arab communities, also fueled by the repercussions of the nearby war in Mali, caused violent unrest and several deaths for a few days, before the city was restored to calm by the police. in a region plagued by chronic poverty and social malaise. The commercial and tribal rivalry between the Tuareg and Arab communities, also fueled by the repercussions of the nearby war in Mali, caused violent unrest and several deaths for a few days, before the city was restored to calm by the police. in a region plagued by chronic poverty and social malaise. The commercial and tribal rivalry between the Tuareg and Arab communities, also fueled by the repercussions of the nearby war in Mali, caused violent unrest and several deaths for a few days, before the city was restored to calm by the police.
In foreign policy, faithful to his alliance with the United States in order to fight global Islamist terrorism, the Algeria he initially showed reluctance to military involvement in Mali on the occasion of the serious crisis that broke out in that country in 2012, even though he chose to open its borders to the fleeing Malian population. Between
2012 and 2013, however, the threat of possible radical Islamist infiltrations from Northern Mali pushed the Algeria to assume a leading role in peace negotiations to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war on its borders, aware of the risks of a possible spread of the conflict in the region also exposed to the repercussions of the collapse of the Libyan state. The peace negotiations between the conflicting delegations, hosted in Algiers, saw some significant progress in the course of 2014 (July and September). In the second half of 2014, while a high risk of attacks remained in the north-eastern regions, the presence of a terrorist cell affiliated to the IS (see), Djound al Khilafa, became evident in the country.
