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Algeria

OFFICIAL NAME: People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

DATE OF FORMATION: 1962

POPULATION: 32.3 million

DENSITY: 35 people per square mile

LANGUAGES: Arabic, Tamazight (Kabyle, Shawia, Tamashek), French

RELIGIONS: Sunni Muslim 99%, Christian and Jewish 1%

ETHNIC MIX: Arab 75%, Berber 24%, European and Jewish 1%

GOVERNMENT: Multiparty elections

CURRENCY: Algerian dinar

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Africa's second-largest country, which extends from a densely populated Mediterranean coast to the empty northern Sahara, Algeria won independence from France in 1962. The military blocked radical Islamists from taking power after winning elections in 1991, setting up a new civilian regime and fighting a bloody terrorist conflict ever since. Algeria has one of the youngest populations in the north African region.