Arabs make up 73.6% of the population of Algeria,
Berbers make up 23.2%,
Arabized Berbers make up 3%, and others constitute 0.2%. Descendants of
Andalusian refugees are also present in the population of Algiers and other cities. Moreover,
Spanish was spoken by these
Aragonese and
Castillian Morisco descendants deep into the 18th century, and even
Catalan was spoken at the same time by
Catalan Morisco descendants in the small town of Grish El-Oued. The Arab population of Algeria is a result of the inflow of sedentary and nomadic Arab tribes from
Arabia since the
Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th century with a major wave in the 11th century. The majority of Algerians identify with an Arab-based identity due to the 20th century
Arab nationalism. The ethnic Berbers are divided into many groups with varying languages. The largest of these are the
Kabyles, who live in the
Kabylia region east of Algiers, the
Chaoui of North-East Algeria, the
Tuaregs in the southern desert and the
Shenwa people of North Algeria. During the colonial period, there was a large (15% in 1960)
European population who became known as
Pied-Noirs. They were primarily of French,
Spanish and
Italian origin. Almost all of this population left during the war of independence or immediately after its end.
Genetics Y-DNA frequencies in coastal Algeria In a recent genetic study by Semino et al. (2004), the
Haplogroup J1 associated with the diffusion of Arabs was found at 35% in
Algeria, which is one of the most common haplogroups in Algeria, like the rest of the
Maghreb, along with
E1b1b. Recent studies on the common J1 Y chromosome suggest it arrived over 10,000 years ago in North Africa, and M81/E3b2 is a Y chromosome specific to North African ancestry, dating to the
Neolithic. A thorough study by Arredi et al. (2004) which analyzed populations from Algeria concludes that the North African pattern of Y-chromosomal variation (including both E3b2 and J haplogroups is largely of Neolithic origin, which suggests that the Neolithic transition in this part of the world was accompanied by demic diffusion of Afro-Asiatic–speaking pastoralists from the
Middle East. This Neolithic origin was later confirmed by Myles et al. (2005) which suggest that "contemporary Berber populations possess the genetic signature of a past migration of pastoralists from the Middle East", although later papers have suggested that this date could have been as longas ten thousand years ago, with the transition from the Oranian to the Capsian culture in North Africa. ==Languages==