Algeria

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is the second-largest country in Africa, stretching from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea down into the Sahara. It became a socialist state in 1962, after winning independence from France, its former colonial ruler. Arabic is the only official language, though Berber dialects have received some recognition, and French is still used in education and in certain media. In the 1970s, improvements in the health system increased the fertility rate to 7–8 children per mother, though the rate has since decreased dramatically due to changes in society, reaching a yearly birth rate of 1.82 births/woman in 2008, with the number of children born per woman in her childbearing years projected to be 2.38 by 2010.