Algeria, formally the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a nation in North Africa's Maghreb area. The nation is the biggest in Africa and the Arab world by total area, and it is bounded to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the southeast by Niger, to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara, to the west by Morocco, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. It has a semi-arid climate, with the majority of the people residing in the fertile north and the Sahara dominating the southern topography. Algeria has a land area of 2,381,741 square kilometers (919,595 square miles), making it the world's tenth biggest country by size and the largest in Africa. Algeria is the ninth-most populated nation in Africa and the 32nd-most populous country in the world, with a population of 44 million people. Algiers, the capital and biggest city, is situated on the Mediterranean coast in the far north.
Pre-1962 Algeria was ruled by various empires and dynasties, including the ancient Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Umayyads, Abbasids, Rustamids, Idrisids, Aghlabids, Fatimids, Zirids, Hammadids, Almoravids, Almohads, Zayyanids, The great majority of Algeria's population is Arab-Berber, professing Islam and speaking Arabic and Berber as official languages. However, in certain situations, French is used as an administrative and educational language. Algerian Arabic is the most widely spoken language.
Algeria is a semi-presidential republic with 58 provinces and 1,541 communes as local constituencies. Algeria is a regional power in North Africa and a worldwide middle power. It boasts the highest Human Development Index of any non-island African country and one of the continent's biggest economies, based mostly on petroleum exports. Algeria has the world's sixteenth greatest oil reserves and the ninth-largest natural gas reserves. Sonatrach, the national oil corporation, is Africa's biggest, delivering significant volumes of natural gas to Europe. Algeria's military is one of the biggest in Africa, and it possesses the continent's highest defense budget. It is a founding member of the African Union, the Arab League, the OIC, OPEC, the United Nations, and the Arab Maghreb Union.