Algeria 🇩🇿

Algeria is a country in Africa with a population of 44,903,225. Its capital is Algiers. The official currency is DZD, and the main languages are Arabic, Berber.

Quick facts

Capital: Algiers
Continent: Africa
Population: 44,903,225
Area: 2,381,741 km²
Density: 18.9 people per km²
Currency: DZD
Languages: Arabic, Berber
ISO code: DZ

Where Algeria sits

Algeria 🇩🇿 is one of 54 countries in Africa, with its capital at Algiers. It covers 2,381,741 square kilometres — 10th in the world — and is home to about 44,903,225 people, 34th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Algeria compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Algeria sits closest to Iraq and Argentina. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Democratic Republic of the Congo and Saudi Arabia.

At 18.9 people per square kilometre it is about 3.1 times below the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

Arabic is an official language in 25 countries here, among them Bahrain, Chad, Comoros and Djibouti, and 20 others. The DZD is used by Algeria and no one else.

To see Algeria next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Algeria

Algiers is Algeria with the ending swapped, and the city is nicknamed 'Algiers the White' and 'The White City'. For the flag, picture a page split into green and white, with a red crescent hugging a red star right across the fold.

The flag of Algeria: green, white and red

🇩🇿 The flag is two vertical stripes, green and white, with a red crescent and five-pointed star in the centre, over the line where the colours meet. Green stands for Islam, white for purity and peace and red for liberty. The crescent and star are also symbols of Islam. Algeria's crescent is more closed than on other flags, because Algerians believe its long horns bring happiness. The flag was adopted on 3 July 1962.

Region and neighbours

Algeria is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa, with a Mediterranean coast in the north and a large part of the Sahara Desert in the south. It shares land borders with 6 countries: Tunisia, Libya, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Morocco. It also borders Western Sahara, a disputed territory to the southwest.

Tunisia 🇹🇳 — capital Tunis
Libya 🇱🇾 — capital Tripoli
Niger 🇳🇪 — capital Niamey
Mali 🇲🇱 — capital Bamako
Mauritania 🇲🇷 — capital Nouakchott
Morocco 🇲🇦 — capital Rabat

Three facts about Algeria

Since South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011, Algeria has been the largest country in Africa. It is also the tenth-largest country in the world.
The Algerian Desert, part of the Sahara, makes up more than 90% of the country.
Rock paintings on the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau have been dated to between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Sources: Wikipedia: Algeria, Wikipedia: Flag of Algeria, Wikipedia: Algiers, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Algeria

African capitals quiz — match Algeria to Algiers
African flags quiz — spot the Algeria flag among its neighbours

Quizzes that include Algeria

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Algeria those are:

Africa map quiz — place it on a blank map
Africa flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Africa capitals quiz — match it to Algiers
Algeria capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Algeria
Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Nearby countries

Angola 🇦🇴 — capital Luanda
Benin 🇧🇯 — capital Porto-Novo
Botswana 🇧🇼 — capital Gaborone
Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 — capital Ouagadougou
Burundi 🇧🇮 — capital Gitega
Cabo Verde 🇨🇻 — capital Praia
Cameroon 🇨🇲 — capital Yaoundé
Central African Republic 🇨🇫 — capital Bangui
Chad 🇹🇩 — capital N'Djamena
Comoros 🇰🇲 — capital Moroni
Congo 🇨🇬 — capital Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩 — capital Kinshasa

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Algeria flag?

The flag of Algeria is two vertical stripes, green and white, with a red crescent and five-pointed star in the centre, over the line where the colours meet. Green stands for Islam, white for purity and peace and red for liberty. The crescent and star are also symbols of Islam. Algeria's crescent is more closed than on other flags, because Algerians believe its long horns bring happiness. The flag was adopted on 3 July 1962.

Which countries border Algeria?

Algeria shares land borders with Tunisia, Libya, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Morocco. It also borders Western Sahara, a disputed territory to the southwest.