Descendants of Andalusi refugees are also present in the population of Algiers and other cities.[29] Moreover, Spanish was spoken by these Aragonese and CastillianMorisco descendants deep into the 18th century, and even Catalan was spoken at the same time by CatalanMorisco descendants in the small town of Grish El-Oued.[30]
During the colonial period, there was a large (15% in 1960)[33]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.[34]
A minority of Algerians speak one of the various Berber languages. The largest Berber language is Kabyle with 3 million speakers.[36] It has significant Arabic, French, Latin, Greek, Phoenician and Punic substratum, and Arabic loanwords represent 35%[38] to 46%[39] of the total Kabyle vocabulary.
^Kabylia: Christian Churches Closed by Algerian Authorities, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, 28 May 2019, Since 2000, thousands of Algerian Muslims have put their faith in Christ. Algerian officials estimate the number of Christians at 50,000, but others say it could be twice that number.
^"Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada". Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 30 June 2015. Archived from the original on 15 July 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2023. there is an estimated 20,000 to 100,000 evangelical Christians in Algeria, who practice their faith in mainly unregistered churches in the Kabyle region
^"Algeria – Drainage". Britannica. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-25. More than three-fourths of the country is ethnically Arab
^ abDK (2005-01-27). FT World Desk Reference 2005. Dorling Kindersley Limited. p. 82. ISBN978-1-4053-6726-4. Arab 75%, Berber 24%, European and Jewish 1%. The population is predominantly Arab, under 30 years of age and urban; some 24% are Berber. More than 85% speak Arabic and 99% are Sunni Muslim.
^ ab"Algeria - History Background". education.stateuniversity.com. Retrieved 2024-08-18. The combined Arab-Berber people comprise more than 99 percent of the population (Arabs approximately 80 percent; Berbers 20 percent), with Europeans less than one percent.
^"Algeria Ethnic Groups". study.com. Retrieved 2024-08-18. Partly due to the strong association between Islam and Arab identity, there is a fair amount of social pressure in Algeria to identify with Arab ancestry. In fact, roughly 85% of the nation identifies much more strongly with their Arab heritage than their Berber heritage.
^Tschudin, Alain; Moffat, Craig; Buchanan-Clarke, Stephen; Russell, Susan; Coutts, Lloyd (2019-06-18). Extremisms in Africa Volume 2. Jonathan Ball Publishers. ISBN978-0-6399928-3-9. The majority of Algerians are Arab, but around 20% are Berbers.
^Stearns, Peter N.; Leonard Langer, William (2001). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged (6 ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 129–131. ISBN978-0-395-65237-4.