{{Politics of Algeria The

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

are divided into 547

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

s (''daïras'' / " دائرة "). The capital of a district is called a ''district seat'' (''

chef-lieu An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

de daïra''). Each District is further divided into one or more

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

(''

baladiyah Baladiyah () is a type of Arabic administrative division that can be translated as "district", "sub-district" or "municipality". The plural is baladiyat (). Grammatically, it is the feminine of "rural, country-, folk-". The Arabic term amanah ( ...

s'').

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

, the national capital, is the only city in the country which is divided into districts (and municipalities), and the only one which is a province itself. This means that its neighborhoods and suburbs have the same status as those of smaller cities or villages elsewhere in the country. The administration of a district is assigned to a district chief (''chef de daïra'') who is chosen by the

Algerian president The president of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is the head of state and chief executive of Algeria, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Algerian People's National Armed Forces. History of the office The Tripoli Program, whi ...

. The district chief, like the wilaya chief, is an unelected political position. Algeria's districts were created as ''

arrondissements An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissements'', ...

'' when Algeria was a colony of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and they had a status equal to those of

mainland France Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European ...

. They were, like France's arrondissements, part of ''

départements A department (, ) is an administrative or political division in several countries. Departments are the first-level divisions of 11 countries, nine in the Americas and two in Africa. An additional 10 countries use departments as second-level div ...

'', which are further part of a ''

région France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (french: régions, singular ), of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collect ...

'' (which was called a territory, ''territoire'', in French Algeria). They were maintained 6 years after the country's independence (until 1968) when they were renamed "daïras" and had their functions slightly changed.

See also