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.

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 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.

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

240px

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

• (Arabic) ولايات الجزائر
• (French) Les wilayas d'Algérie
• (English) The provinces of Algeria