Population
The original residents were Berbers. These in ancient times underwent the Phoenician influence, then, more profoundly, the Roman one. The Arab conquest (7th century) at first did not alter the ethnic structure much; only in the 12th century. the Arab element pushed the Berbers back to the less accessible parts (Kabylia, Aurès) where they still survive.
The European settlement dates back to the 19th century. (in 1830 the local population was around 3,000,000 residents). The population grew rapidly after the French conquest: 5,260,000 residents in 1921; 8,681,800 in 1948 and 10,197,000 in 1960, shortly before the proclamation of independence. In 1998, 29,272,343 residents were registered. The demographic increase recorded very high values during the second half of the 20th century, with peaks of 3.3% on average per year (1980-83); values due to a birth rate among the highest in the world, clearly above 40%. Only since the last years of the twentieth century has there been a reversal of the trend: during the period 1998-2003 the average growth rate was in fact 1.6% per year. The birth rate decreased progressively (17.1 ‰ in 2006,
According to Findjobdescriptions, most of the population lives in the urbanized coastal plains and in the adjacent mountain valleys, while the population density decreases sharply towards the interior; the desert regions of the Algeria Saharan are in fact uninhabited, with the exception of isolated nomadic and sedentary communities and the ‘pioneer cities’ created for oil extraction, among which the first and best known is Hassi-Messaoud. The average density is therefore insignificant (just over 14 residents /km 2) referring to the entire territory of the State. Colonization left the Algeria a discreet urban network (Arab cities were much less numerous and important than in Morocco and Tunisia), oversized with respect to the economic possibilities and needs of the country. The way of life in the cities has been degrading, even if the agglomerations of the capital and the other major centers (Oran, Constantina, Annaba) have not stopped growing, giving rise to the birth of chaotic and often precarious suburbs. In 2006 the capital, Algiers, had 1,513,570 residents; according to an estimate of the same year, the population of the urban agglomeration of the capital was 4,150,000 residents. At that same date, 59% of the Algerian population was considered urban. The exodus of Europeans following decolonization reached its peak in 1962, with the repatriation of over half a million French; currently the number of Europeans is reduced to less than 1% of the Algerian population. The Berber minority (26% of the population) mostly lives in the mountainous region of Kabylia, E of Algiers; the Berbers, despite being Muslims, identify with their own cultural heritage and claim, sometimes with violence, autonomy. The Algerian government has so far shown its opposition, but has begun to promote the teaching of the Berber language. The Berber minority (26% of the population) mostly lives in the mountainous region of Kabylia, E of Algiers; the Berbers, despite being Muslims, identify with their own cultural heritage and claim, sometimes with violence, autonomy. The Algerian government has so far shown its opposition, but has begun to promote the teaching of the Berber language. The Berber minority (26% of the population) mostly lives in the mountainous region of Kabylia, E of Algiers; the Berbers, despite being Muslims, identify with their own cultural heritage and claim, sometimes with violence, autonomy. The Algerian government has so far shown its opposition, but has begun to promote the teaching of the Berber language.
Archaeology
The territory of modern Algeria has seen the succession of different civilizations and cultures. Of the civilization of the ancient Berber residents (Numidians, Mauri and Getuli) documents remain in the inscriptions, mostly funerary, partly from the Roman period. As for the buildings, it is often difficult to recognize what is peculiar to the Berbers and what belongs to other peoples or is affected by the influences of their civilization. Among the constructions that appear frankly indigenous are the so-called ‘tuft’ (shūshah) cylindrical tombs, about 2 m high and 5 m in diameter.
Most of the Roman cities arose along the coast (Saldae, Rusuccuru, Iomnium, Portus Magnus); among the most important and oldest urbanization Iol-Caesarea(od. Cherchell), with walls, theater and perhaps an amphitheater, and Tipasa, a Latin municipality at the time of Claudius. Between the 2nd and 3rd century. AD the recurrent attacks of Maure tribes made it necessary to erect numerous city walls in the coastal centers; starting from the 3rd century. AD castella appeared in the plain of Sitifis (od. Setif), a city that experienced its moment of maximum splendor in the Diocletian age, when it became (288 AD) the capital of the new province of Mauretania Sitifensis.
