Fertility and Population Policy in Algeria: Discrepancies between Planning and Outcomes

over the last fifty years algeria has undergone major political, socioeconomic, and demographic upheavals. in population terms, the current situation and the concerns it raises are the very reverse of the position in the 1960s. despite the loss of lives during the war of liberation from France in the late 1950s until independence in 1962, the first census taken in independent algeria confirmed the extent of the country’s population growth. Between the 1954 and 1966 censuses the country’s predominantly muslim population had risen from less than 9 million to 12 million, an average annual increase of over 2.6 percent. at that rate, a population doubles in 30 years, and algerian researchers at the time were alarmed by a study by the algerian association for demographic, economic, and Social research (aardeS) which indicated that this growth would accelerate and might approach 4 percent a year by 1985. this would mean a doubling of the country’s population in less than 20 years. despite these warnings, far from introducing a policy to reduce population growth, the algerian government adopted a discourse hostile to the notion of family planning, which was seen as imperialist in nature. although the census of 1977 provided some evidence for the alarmist thesis, with an intercensal average annual growth rate of 3.2 percent for 1966–77, civil registration data showed that the rate of natural increase began falling in the early 1970s. in fact, the predicted 4 percent annual rate was never reached. although officials and decisionmakers were fairly quick to understand the economic and social challenges posed by a 3 percent population growth rate, the fact that the growth rate was significantly lower than had been feared delayed discussion of the need to introduce a population policy in algeria. as a result, it was not until 1983 that the first national program to control population growth was enacted.