id="id00236">Fiscal year: calendar year

Transportation ———————

Railways: total: 670 km standard gauge: 670 km 1.435-m gauge (1995)

Highways: total: 18,450 km paved: 17,450 km unpaved: 1,000 km (1991 est.)

Waterways: 43 km plus Albanian sections of Lake Scutari, Lake
  Ohrid, and Lake Prespa (1990)

Pipelines: crude oil 145 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas
  64 km (1991)

Ports: Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore

Merchant marine:
  total: 11 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 52,967 GRT/76,887
  DWT (1995 est.)

Airports:
  total: 11
  with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 3
  with paved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 2
  with unpaved runways over 3 047 m: 2
  with unpaved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 1
  with unpaved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 1
  with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 2 (1994 est.)

Communications ———————

Telephones: 55,000

Telephone system:
  domestic: obsolete wire system; no longer provides a telephone for
  every village; in 1992, following the fall of the communist
  government, peasants cut the wire to about 1,000 villages and used
  it to build fences
  international: inadequate; international traffic carried by
  microwave radio relay from the Tirane exchange to Italy and Greece

Radio broadcast stations: AM 17, FM 1, shortwave 0

Radios: 577,000 (1991 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 9

Televisions: 300,000 (1993 est.)

Defense ———-

Branches: Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Interior
  Ministry Troops, Border Guards

Manpower availability: males age 15-49: 723,231 males fit for military service: 588,304 males reach military age (19) annually: 29,340 (1996 est.)

Defense expenditures: exchange rate conversion - $45 million, 2.5% of GDP (1995)

======================================================================

@Algeria ———-

Map —-

Location: 28 00 N, 3 00 E — Northern Africa, bordering the
  Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco and Tunisia

Flag ——

Description: two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white with a red, five-pointed star within a red crescent; the crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam (the state religion)

Geography ————-

Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea,
  between Morocco and Tunisia

Geographic coordinates: 28 00 N, 3 00 E

Map references: Africa

Area:
  total area: 2,381,740 sq km
  land area: 2,381,740 sq km
  comparative area: slightly less than 3.5 times the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,343 km
  border countries: Libya 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km,
  Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km

Coastline: 998 km

Maritime claims: exclusive fishing zone: 32-52 nm territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: part of southeastern region claimed by
  Libya; land boundary dispute with Tunisia settled in 1993

Climate: arid to semiarid; mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers
  along coast; drier with cold winters and hot summers on high
  plateau; sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common in
  summer

Terrain: mostly high plateau and desert; some mountains; narrow,
  discontinuous coastal plain
  lowest point: Chott Melrhir -40 m
  highest point: Tahat 3,003 m

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates,
  uranium, lead, zinc

Land use:
  arable land: 3%
  permanent crops: 0%
  meadows and pastures: 13%
  forest and woodland: 2%
  other: 82%

Irrigated land: 3,360 sq km (1989 est.)

Environment:
  current issues: soil erosion from overgrazing and other poor farming
  practices; desertification; dumping of raw sewage, petroleum
  refining wastes, and other industrial effluents is leading to the
  pollution of rivers and coastal waters; Mediterranean Sea, in
  particular, becoming polluted from oil wastes, soil erosion, and
  fertilizer runoff; inadequate supplies of potable water
  natural hazards: mountainous areas subject to severe earthquakes;
  mud slides
  international agreements: party to - Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands; signed, but not ratified -
  Desertification, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban

Geographic note: second-largest country in Africa (after Sudan)

People ———

Population: 29,183,032 (July 1996 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 40% (male 5,910,543; female 5,701,647)
  15-64 years: 56% (male 8,319,650; female 8,162,816)
  65 years and over: 4% (male 510,308; female 578,068) (July 1996 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.21% (1996 est.)

Birth rate: 28.51 births/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Death rate: 5.9 deaths/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Net migration rate: -0.49 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  all ages: 1.02 male(s)/female (1996 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 48.7 deaths/1,000 live births (1996 est.)

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 68.31 years male: 67.22 years female: 69.46 years (1996 est.)

Total fertility rate: 3.59 children born/woman (1996 est.)

Nationality: noun: Algerian(s) adjective: Algerian

Ethnic divisions: Arab-Berber 99%, European less than 1%

Religions: Sunni Muslim (state religion) 99%, Christian and Jewish 1%

Languages: Arabic (official), French, Berber dialects

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1995 est.)
  total population: 61.6%
  male: 73.9%
  female: 49%

Government —————