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The overall life expectancy of Algerians has increased to 79.6 years in 2023, after the sharp decline recorded during the 2020/2021 period, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. This was indicated by the National Office of Statistics (ONS) in a document presenting statistics on Algerian demography from 2020 to 2023.
The National Statistics Office specifies that differences are recorded between men whose threshold is 78.2 years and women whose threshold has exceeded, for the first time since the health crisis, the threshold of 80 years, reaching 81 years in 2023.
He noted that after peaks in mortality recorded due to the global health crisis, the number of deaths began to decrease in 2022, reaching 192,000 in 2023.
According to ONS data, Algeria has a steadily increasing population, reaching 46.7 million inhabitants as of January 1, 2024. This trend is expected to continue, with a projected population of 47.4 million inhabitants as of January 1, 2025.
The study specifies that the Algerian population reached approximately 46.3 million inhabitants as of July 1, 2023, adding that 895,000 live births, 192,000 deaths and 278,000 marriages were recorded during this year.
Paradoxically, despite the constant increase in the population, it was noted that the year 2023 was marked by a continued decline in the birth rate, with, for the first time since 2010, a decline in births below the threshold of 900,000 registrations. This decline is part of a downward trend observed since 2017, influenced by economic and social factors. A slight male predominance was also noted with 105 boys for 100 girls among newborns.
The age structure of the population also shows some changes over the years. The share of young children under five years old has decreased from 11.7% in 2019 to 10.2% in 2023, while that of adolescents aged 5 to 14 years has increased to now constitute 20.2% of the total population.
At the same time, the share of people of working age, aged between 15 and 59, continues to decrease, falling from 60.0% to 59.2% between 2019 and 2023.
The share of people aged 60 and over also increased to 10.5% of the population, compared to 9.5% in 2019, with almost 5 million elderly people. Among this group was recorded a significant proportion of over 70s, estimated at 2,127,000 people and more than 707,000 people aged 80 and over.
In addition, the ONS notes that the superposition of the age pyramids of 2008 and 2023 highlights that the demographic transition phase is still continuing. This transition is reflected in a narrowing of the base of the pyramid, after the widening observed in recent years, but also the narrowing of the 15-19 age group, the 20-24 age group, and, to a lesser extent, the 25-29 age group.
Addressing infant mortality statistics, a stability in the infant mortality rate was noted during the period 2020-2023. Estimated at 19.9% at the national level during the year 2023, it reaches 21.9% for boys and 17.8% for girls. The neonatal mortality rate is estimated at 15.7%, more precisely 17.5% for boys and 13.9% for girls.
Furthermore, concerning the number of marriages and divorces, the ONS study highlights that the decline in the number of marriages, which began in 2014, is continuing at a faster pace in 2020. 285,000 unions were registered during 2020, a relative decline of more than 10% compared to 2019. A recovery effect was observed the following year, with an overall number of 315,000 unions, but from 2022, the decline will continue to reach 278,664 in 2023.
This decline also affects the marriage rate, which stands at 6% in 2023, the same level reached at the beginning of the 2000s. This continued decline in marriage once again supports the hypothesis of the impact of the change in the age structure of the population on the decline in the volume of marriages.
It is thus explained that the evolution of the population aged 20 to 34, the population where 80% of marriages take place, highlights a decline in its volume of a fairly visible pace from 2015, which population fell from 10.997 million to 9.861 million between 2015 and 2023. With the continued decline in the volume of this population in the years to come, it is likely that the decline in the volume of marriages will continue until 2025-2030, according to ONS forecasts.
At the same time, there was an increase in the number of divorces, amounting to 93,402 breakups recorded by the services of the Ministry of Justice in 2023. The gross divorce rate, expressed as the ratio between the number of divorces and the average population of the year, increased from 1.52‰ to 2.02‰ between 2019 and 2023. On the other hand, the divorce rate, which is defined as the ratio between the number of divorces and that of marriages contracted during the same year, and which increased from 20.9% to 33.5%, also reflects an increase in this rate during the same period.