Provinces of Algeria

Algeria is divided into 48 wilayas (provinces), 553 daïras (circles; see Districts of Algeria) and 1541 baladiyahs (municipalities, in French: commune). The capital city of a baladiyah, daïra, or province (which is also the largest city of those) always gives those entities their name, even Algiers, the capital of the country gave it its name (El Djazayar, the Arabic name for both the city and the country).

According to the Algerian constitution, a wilaya is a territorial collectivity enjoying economic and diplomatic freedom, the APW, or "Popular Provincial Parliament/Provincial Popular Parliament" (the Assemblée Populaire Wilayale, in French) is the political entity governing a province, directed by the "Wali" (Governor), who is chosen by the Algerian President to handle the APW's decisions, the APW has also a president, who is elected by the members of the APW, which is elected by Algerians.

Map of the provinces of Algeria numbered according to the official order.

The province numbers are the first 31 provinces (see the second section) in Arabic alphabetical order, after the adding of 17 other provinces in 1983, the old numbering was kept and the 17 new provinces have been assigned codes from 32-48, in Arabic alphabetical order. There are 48 provinces (since 1983) in Algeria, they are:

1 Adrar

2 Chlef

3 Laghouat

4 Oum el-Bouaghi

5 Batna

6 Béjaïa

7 Biskra

8 Béchar

9 Blida

10 Bouira

11 Tamanghasset

12 Tébessa

13 Tlemcen

14 Tiaret

15 Tizi Ouzou

16 Algiers

17 Djelfa

18 Jijel

19 Sétif

20 Saïda

21 Skikda

22 Sidi Bel Abbes

23 Annaba

24 Guelma

25 Constantine

26 Médéa

27 Mostaganem

28 M'Sila

29 Mascara

30 Ouargla

31 Oran

32 El Bayadh

33 Illizi

34 Bordj Bou Arréridj

35 Boumerdès

36 El Taref

37 Tindouf

38 Tissemsilt

39 El Oued

40 Khenchela

41 Souk Ahras

42 Tipasa

43 Mila

44 Aïn Defla

45 Naama

46 Aïn Témouchent

47 Ghardaïa

48 Relizane

List of the 48 Provinces of Algeria

Law Number 84-09 of February, 4th 1984 relative to the organisation of the Algerian territory and as updated and complemented by Law Number JO of February, 7th 1984 has fixed the number of ALgerian provinces "Wilaya"s to 48 as well as the list of municipalities "communes" attached to each province.

The following table presents the list of provinces, showing for each province, its numerical code, its name (which is in all times the same as the name of the capital city of the province), the number of districts "daira"s in each province, the number of municipalities as well as the province area and its population.

Code	Province	Number of Districts	Number of Municipalities	Area km	Population (2008)	Density (/km²) (2008)
01	Adrar	11	28	439,700	399,714	0.94
02	Chlef	13	35	4,795	1,002,088	209
03	Laghouat	10	24	25,057	455,602	18
04	Oum el-Bouaghi	12	29	6,783	621,612	81
05	Batna	22	61	12,192	1,119,791	92
06	Béjaïa	19	52	3,268	912,577	279
07	Biskra	12	33	20,986	721,356	34
08	Béchar	12	21	162,200	270,061	1.7
09	Blida	10	25	1,575	1,002,937	591
10	Bouira	12	45	4,439	695,583	157
11	Tamanghasset	7	10	556,185	176,637	0.32
12	Tébessa	12	28	14,227	648,703	46
13	Tlemcen	20	53	9,061	949,135	105
14	Tiaret	14	42	20,673	846,823	41
15	Tizi Ouzou	21	67	2,956	1,127,608	316
16	Algiers	13	57	1,190	2,988,145	2,511
17	Djelfa	12	36	66,415	1,092,184	46
18	Jijel	11	28	2,577	636,948	247
19	Sétif	20	60	6,504	1,489,979	229
20	Saïda	6	16	6,764	330,641	49
21	Skikda	13	38	4,026	898,680	223
22	Sidi Bel Abbes	15	52	9,096	604,744	66
23	Annaba	6	12	1,439	609,499	424
24	Guelma	10	34	4,101	482,430	118
25	Constantine	6	12	2,187	938,475	427
26	Médéa	19	64	8,866	819,932	92
27	Mostaganem	10	32	2,175	737,118	325
28	M'Sila	15	47	18,718	990,591	53
29	Mascara	16	47	5,941	784,073	132
30	Ouargla	10	21	211,980	558,558	2.6
31	Oran	9	26	2,121	1,454,078	688
32	El Bayadh	8	22	78,870	228,624	3.2
33	Illizi	3	6	285,000	52,333	0.18
34	Bordj Bou Arréridj	10	34	4,115	628,475	160
35	Boumerdès	9	32	1,356	802,083	504
36	El Taref	7	24	3,339	408,414	122
37	Tindouf	1	2	159,000	49,149	0.31
38	Tissemsilt	8	22	3,152	294,476	93
39	El Oued	12	30	54,573	647,548	12
40	Khenchela	8	21	9,811	386,683	40
41	Souk Ahras	10	26	4,541	438,127	95
42	Tipasa	10	28	1,605	591,010	273
43	Mila	13	32	3,407	766,886	220
44	Aïn Defla	14	36	4,891	766,013	156
45	Naama	7	12	29,950	192,891	6.5
46	Aïn Témouchent	8	28	2,379	371,239	156
47	Ghardaïa	9	13	86,105	363,598	4.2
48	Relizane	13	38	4,870	726,180	152
	Algérie	548	1541	2,381,741	34,080,030	14

1974-1983

The 15 départments were reorganized to form 31 provinces:

1 Adrar
2 Chlef
3 Laghouat
4 Oum el-Bouaghi
5 Batna
6 Béjaïa
7 Biskra
8 Béchar
9 Blida
10 Bouira
11 Tamanghasset
12 Tébessa
13 Tlemcen
14 Tiaret
15 Tizi Ouzou
16 Algiers
17 Djelfa
18 Jijel
19 Sétif
20 Saïda
21 Skikda
22 Sidi Bel Abbes
23 Annaba
24 Guelma
25 Constantine
26 Médéa
27 Mostaganem
28 M'Sila
29 Mascara
30 Ouargla
31 Oran

1957-1974

Immediately after independence, Algeria retained its 15 former French départements, which were renamed wilayas (provinces) in 1968, for the most part, with some name changes:

• 9A-Alger (Algiers)
• 9C-Annaba (Formerly Bône, English: Bona)
• 9B-Batna
• 9D-Constantine
• 9H-Orléansville (Then El Asnam, now Chlef)
• 8A-El Wahat (Currently Ouargla, formerly Oasis)
• 9E-Médéa
• 9F-Mostaganem
• 9G-Oran
• 9R-Saïda
• 8B-Saoura (Currently Béchar)
• 9J-Sétif
• 9K-Tiaret
• 9L-Tizi-Ouzou
• 9M-Tlemcen

1954-1962

During the Algerian War of Independence, the FLN adopted an organizational system divided by 6 numbered wilayas:

1. Aurès
2. Constantine
3. Kabylie
4. Algiers
5. Oran
6. Sahara

See also

• Municipalities of Algeria
• List of Algerian Provinces by population
• List of Algerian Provinces by area
• ISO 3166-2:DZ

External links

• Template:Ar icon ولايات الجزائر
• Template:Fr icon Les wilayas d'Algérie
• Template:En icon The provinces of Algeria