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Algeria

Africa

To which language should you translate to localize in Algeria?


Overview


Language

Official language
Arabic (official) 73%, Berber or Tamazight (official) 27%

T-index
0.13%

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.

Other languages
French, though it has no official status, is widely used in government, culture, media (newspapers) and education (from primary school), due to Algeria’s colonial history.

Most studied language
French

English
Very low proficiency (EF) – 78 of 100 countries/regions in the world- 10/20 position in Africa

Demography

Capital: Algiers
Currency: Algerian dinar
Population: 43,85m
Population density: 18/km2

Economy

GDP: 163.04 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 3,690.6 USD ‎(2021) ‎
Exports: $35.4 billion (2021)

Statistics

Internet users: 70.09% penetration, 32.09 million
Unemployment rate: 11.6% (2022)
Urbanisation: 74.26% (2020)
Literacy: 81.13 % (2019)

Conventions

Numbering system
Arabic numerals and comma as decimal separator

Date format: dd – mm – yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00213

Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal

Facts and data


Economy

Imports
$34.3 billion (2019).  Wheat ($2.2B), Concentrated Milk ($1.27B), Cars ($800M), Soybean Oil ($798M), and Corn ($795M), importing mostly from China ($6.34B), France ($4.35B), Spain ($2.19B), Germany ($2.16B), and Italy ($2.07B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 50% have an account with a financial institution
• 6% have a credit card
• 6% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is below average (rated 48.6 out of 100) ranked 16th out of 20 North African and Middle Eastern countries and 157th out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank)

Exports
$35.4 billion (2018).  Petroleum Gas ($14.3B), Crude Petroleum ($10.7B), Refined Petroleum ($6.23B), Nitrogenous Fertilizers ($1.21B), and Ammonia ($714M), exporting mostly to Italy ($7.32B), Spain ($5.06B), France ($4.6B), South Korea ($1.68B), and United States ($1.68B).

Main local online stores
uedkniss.com, aliexpress.com, amazon.com, mawdoo3.com

Economic freedom
‘Repressed’ (rated 46.2 out of 100)ranked 13th out of 14 Northern African and Middle Eastern countries and ranked 168th out of 186 countries worldwide (2019, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 17th out of 19 North African and Middle Eastern countries, 115th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal


Service Imports (2016)

Source: OEC


Service Exports (2016)

Source: OEC


Most Specialized Products by RCA Index

Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Algeria observed and expected exports in each product

Source: OEC


Most complex products by PCI

Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters

Source: OEC


Export Opportunities by Relatedness

Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Algeria is not specialized in

Source: OEC


T-index

T-index

Reach most of the online purchasing power

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.

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Media

Media language
Arabic, French, and Tamazigth

Information channels
The majority of Algeria’s population prefers to watch satellite broadcasts of Arab and French stations. The number of satellite dishes is estimated at 34 million (Arabic and French).

The press

The written press in Algeria publishes in three languages: Arabic, French and Tamazight. The majority of print publications are privately owned. The print press also publishes online, on a daily basis, except for on Fridays (public observation of the Islamic holy day).

El Khabar – (The News) private, Arabic daily
Echourouk – (The Sunrise) – private, Arabic daily; website has English-language pages
Le Quotidien d’Oran – private, French-language daily
El Moudjahid – (The Freedom Fighter) – state-run, French-language daily; website has English-language pages
Ech Chaab – (The People) – state-run, Arabic daily
El Watan – (The Homeland) – private, French language daily
Le Soir d’Algérie – private, French-language daily
Liberte – private, French-language
La Tribune – private, French-language
Algerian Press Portal – press directory

News agency

Bakthar News Agencies – state-run, English-language pages
Afghan Islamic Press – private, based in Peshawar, Pakistan; English-language pages
TOLOnews News Portal – part of Moby Group – private, English-language pages
Khaama Press – private, English-language pages

Television

Etablissement Public de Television (EPTV) – state-run
Echourouk TV – private, based in Algiers, via satellite
Ennahar TV – private, based in Algiers, via satellite
El Djazairia TV – private, via satellite
Djair TV – private, via satellite
BRTV – Berber, via satellite from France

Radio

Radio Algerienne – state-run, operates Arabic, Berber and French networks and local stations

News Agencies

Algerian Press Service (APS) – state-run agency
Algerie Focus – news site, in French
Tout Sur l’Algerie – news site, in French
Algeria Channel – news aggregator, in Arabic
Tamurt – Berber news site


Media data source: BBC


Internet Data

Internet users
58% penetration, 25,428,159 million

Share of web traffic by device
61.42% mobile phones,  37.36% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.21% tablet devices and 0.02% other devices

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
13.40 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
11.01 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of the total population: 107.2%

Share of cellular mobile connections that are broadband (3G, 4G, 5G): 85.6%

Most popular web search engines
Google (98.21%), Bing (1.14%), Yahoo (0.34%) Yandex (0.15%), DuckDuckgo (0.05%), Petal Search (0.05%)

Most used social media
Facebook (76.16%), YouTube (10.49%), Instagram (7.54%), Pinterest (0.67%), Twitter (5.01%), Reddit (0.06%)

Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter


Social statistics

Life expectancy
76.95 yrs (2020)

Gender
In Algeria, men have all the rights and, moreover, the political powers instruct women to follow the “family code of conduct” which limits their freedom. Women are not welcome in places that are reserved for men, such as movie theatres, cafes, bars, or soccer stadiums. This attitude is also seen in the workplace, which is male-dominated. Women’s skills are underestimated and there are many difficulties associated with working in mixed-gender groups. Women working in areas outside of education or the health and secretarial sectors are seen as intruders.

Class
After living for more than 30 years under a socialist regime, which promoted equality, Algerians are having trouble adapting to the current way of life. Following the political changeover and the adoption of the market economy, society was hit hard by an economic crisis. This has resulted in a class system (the rich, middle class, and poor), and the poor are currently in the majority. For the average Algerian, economic conditions rather than social factors determine class.

This new situation has led employers to take a very authoritarian attitude. Employees have less protection and are slaves to the job market, unemployment rates, and their employers’ moods.

Current health expenditure
6.32% of GDP

Corruption perceptions Index
Cambodia scored 24 out of 100, ranked 150 out 180 countries worldwide.

The CPI measures the perception of corruption due to the difficulty of measuring absolute levels of corruption.

CO2 emissions
4 metric ton per capita

Ethnicity
Ethnologically, Algeria is not very diverse. Algerians are very aware of the fact that the population is 75% Arabic and 25% Berber. Yet, the Arab majority tends to marginalize the Berbers, which provokes a strong defensive reaction from the Berbers. It should be noted that there has been progress in making Berber the second national language, although it is not yet official. The impact of ethnicity on work relations is not very significant. Both ethnic groups work together without any problems. As in any workplace, groups, cliques, and friendships are formed based on different reasons such as ethnic, regional, or tribal affiliations. In Algeria, business relations do not generally need to flow from already established personal relations; they are based on economic criteria alone. Nevertheless, that does not mean that this will not happen and personal relations may lead to other business opportunities with different business partners. It is also helpful to be recommended or referred by someone who knows the person with whom you want to conduct business personally. Trust will build quickly.

Religion
The Muslim religion has a large place in everyday life in Algeria. It is what assists and guides interpersonal relations, yet in the larger cities (Algiers, Oran, Annaba), Western influence, and the French culture in particular, is very noticeable. Algerians avoid making negative judgments about their religion and are attached to it even if they are not necessarily very devout. In terms of the workplace, the weekend in Algeria was changed to Thursday and Friday (from Saturday and Sunday), due to religious considerations. Prayer sessions are held five times daily and play an important role for Muslims. Work hours are set according to economic needs and not according to prayer hours. Muslims may accumulate their prayers and do them all at once in the comfort of their own homes. Employees must also follow the workplace dress code.

World Happiness Index
Algeria ranked 96 out of 137 countries, with a score of 5.122

The World Happiness Index measures happiness based on respondent ratings of their own

Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF


Algeria urban-rural (2018)

Sources: WorldBank


Tertiary education in Algeria

Source: UNESCO


Tertiary education in Algeria, by sex

Source: UNESCO


The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com


Languages research


Languages spoken in Algeria

Sources: Worldatlas/Britannica/Wikipedia/EF


Photo credit: Leonid Andronov, Unsplash


The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.co