The Census of 1906 in Algeria and Tunisia

Published on 11/09/2014

Augustin BERNARD

article published in the Annales de Géographie. 1908, vol. 17, no. 91

Following the practice in France, and at roughly the same date, a population census is carried out every five years in Algeria and Tunisia. But while in the metropole the quinquennial censuses hold few surprises for us, they are of great interest in North Africa, where one is dealing with colonial groups in the process of formation, and the publication of results is awaited with a certain curiosity by those interested in these questions.

Part I

The total population of Algeria ¹, according to the 1906 census, amounts to 5,231,850 inhabitants, including the army. If one deducts from this figure the separately counted population (army, boarding students of lycées and colleges, patients, hospitalized persons, prisoners, etc.), namely 73,799 individuals, of whom approximately 55,000 are European and indigenous troops, there remains a municipal population of 5,158,051 individuals. In the previous census ², that of 1901, the population, not including the army, was 4,801,475 inhabitants, and the municipal population was 4,785,144. The increase during the last five-year period would therefore be 430,375 units ³, and 372,907 for the municipal population.

It should be noted that the Algeria of the 1906 census is no longer quite the same as that of the 1901 census. It has been enlarged by vast desert expanses which, combined with the southern part of the former Military Territories, now constitute the Southern Territories. But since the newly occupied regions are almost empty of inhabitants and have been only very imperfectly surveyed, the population figure for Algeria is not significantly increased thereby. It is above all the administrative districts that have been modified. Northern Algeria, covering 199,970 sq. km., has 4,785,759 inhabitants; the civil territory accounts within this total for 155,609 sq. km. and 4,560,617 inhabitants; what remains of the former Military Territories, destined to be gradually absorbed into the civil territory, has only 44,361 sq. km. and 225,142 inhabitants. As for the Southern Territories, covering approximately 2,700,000 sq. km., they have only 446,091 inhabitants: both area and population figures are only approximate for these territories. Given the impossibility of establishing individual bulletins in these regions, especially for scattered populations, it had been decided that the enumeration of the indigenous population would be carried out by fraction or by ksar, by means of nominal lists provided by indigenous chiefs, verified and checked by local authorities ⁴.

The new administrative divisions make it possible to see to what extent the inhabitants of Algeria, both indigenous and European, are concentrated in the Tell, in the narrow fertile, watered, and cultivable strip that runs along the Mediterranean. The 200,000 sq. km. of Northern Algeria have an average density of 23 inhabitants per square kilometer; this average itself does not give an accurate idea of the distribution: the density, less than 1 throughout the steppe region, exceeds 100 in Kabylia. But the population of Algeria is far, as is well known, from forming a homogeneous whole; for questions of density as for all other demographic questions, each of the groups composing it should be considered separately.

The 1906 census records a municipal population ⁵ of 4,477,788 indigenous Muslims, of whom 4,447,149 are French subjects and 30,639 foreigners, Moroccans or Tunisians. They numbered 4,152,884 in 1901; this is an increase of 324,904. It is very gratifying to see that the indigenous population shows no tendency whatsoever to disappear; it is even gratifying that it is growing; however, this very rapid multiplication is not without causing some concern for years of poor harvests. The indigenous population is growing fastest precisely where it is most dense, that is to say in the Kabylias of the Djurjura and the Babors. The arrondissement of Tizi-Ouzou now has 416,152 inhabitants, of whom 407,506 are indigenous, for 3,689 sq. km. (density: 113); the commune mixte of Djurjura, 63,705 inhabitants, of whom 63,549 are indigenous, for 332 sq. km. (density: 191). The safety valve of emigration does, it is true, spread the Kabyles over two-thirds of the territory of Algeria, but this is perhaps an insufficient palliative. As Mr Demontés ⁶ has shown, indigenous density and European density are generally in inverse proportion to one another: the former increases from west to east, the latter from east to west. The indigenous are especially numerous in the provinces of Constantine and Alger, the Europeans in the province of Oran; in a single arrondissement, that of Oran, the Europeans outnumber the indigenous (155,650 Europeans, against 126,242 indigenous).

The European population numbers 680,263 individuals (of whom only 5,353 are in the Southern Territories), compared to 632,260 in 1901, an increase of 48,000. The 1906 census breaks down this population as follows:

French by origin born in France and Algeria: 278,976
Foreigners naturalized by decrees: 21,696
Foreigners definitively naturalized by the law of 1889: 97,950
Foreigners naturalized by the law of 1889 under suspensive condition: 50,798
Israelites naturalized by the decree of 1870: 17,290
Israelites born of parents naturalized by the decree of 1870: 47,355
Spaniards: 117,475
Italians: 33,153
Anglo-Maltese: 6,217
Others: 9,353
TOTAL: 680,263

It is appropriate first to set aside the Israelites, who are European and French from a political point of view, through the naturalization conferred upon them by the decree of 1870, but indigenous from an ethnic point of view, by birth and origin. They are notable for an extremely rapid rate of growth, even faster than that of the indigenous Muslims; from 57,046 in 1901, they rose to 61,645 in 1906.

There remain the French, the naturalized, and the foreigners. It is especially with regard to these three groups and their relative importance that the 1906 census provides important information. The way the question is framed is well known. Before 1889, a foreigner born in France became French if, in the year of his majority, he claimed that status; the law of 1889 reversed the terms of the option: it presumes, for all those who do not declare a contrary intention, the will to become French; this is what has been called automatic naturalization. A notable fraction of the foreign population was thus added to the French group. The 1906 census reveals the size of this fraction; it distinguishes 21,696 foreigners naturalized French by decrees, 97,950 definitively naturalized by the law of 1889, making 119,646 naturalized persons, to whom may be added those whom the census calls the naturalized under suspensive condition, that is to say minor individuals of foreign origin born in Algeria, who will only definitively become French upon reaching their majority, if at that time they are still domiciled in the colony and do not decline French nationality: they number 50,798 ⁷, which, if counted with the naturalized, brings the number of the latter to 170,444. There are, in addition, 166,198 foreigners, of whom 117,475 are Spaniards. If one adds the naturalized to the French, one obtains 398,622 French (and even 449,420 with the naturalized under suspensive condition), against 216,996 foreigners (and even only 166,198, if one adopts the census's method of counting). If, on the contrary, one adds the naturalized to the foreigners, they number 336,642, against 278,976 French. Around 1891, there was roughly an equilibrium between the French and the foreigners ⁸; since then, the balance has been broken, apparently in favor of the French, but in reality in favor of the foreigners. The French by origin themselves are strongly imbued with foreign blood through mixed marriages; these marriages, which occur especially between French men and Spanish women, reach a proportion of 20% to 21% ⁹ and are generally the most fertile ¹⁰. In the fairly near future, two-thirds of the children of Algeria will have foreign blood in their veins.

The proportion of foreigners and naturalized persons appears even greater if one considers the department of Oran, which is, as is well known, the one where Spaniards are most numerous. One finds there only 85,792 French by origin, against 77,470 naturalized (of whom 24,970 under suspensive condition) and 86,227 foreigners; the three groups are therefore roughly of equal numerical strength. In the arrondissement of Oran, there are 40,937 French by origin, 48,878 naturalized (of whom 16,982 under suspensive condition), 52,676 foreigners; in the arrondissement of Bel-Abbès, 11,029 French by origin, 11,790 naturalized (of whom 3,123 under suspensive condition), 13,445 foreigners. In Oran city, there are 21,906 French, 27,570 naturalized (of whom 10,199 under suspensive condition), and 25,256 foreigners; in Mers-el-Kebir, 230 French, 1,483 naturalized (of whom 456 under suspensive condition), 920 foreigners; in Saint-Denis-du-Sig, 782 French, 3,521 naturalized (of whom 1,298 under suspensive condition), 2,558 foreigners.

Everything has been said about the disadvantages of the law of 1889 and about the "foreign peril"; it should be neither denied nor exaggerated. We neither wish nor are able to do without the contribution of foreigners for the development of Algeria; it is not desirable that they remain grouped in distinct nationalities: naturalization is therefore the only solution available. Perhaps it would have been advisable to better manage the transitions and to graduate, as has been proposed several times, access to French citizenship; but it is as impossible to reverse the law of 1889 as the decree of 1870 that naturalized the indigenous Israelites. We must strive to assimilate all these Neo-French, and it is by no means impossible to succeed. It is also necessary, as we have stated here before ¹¹, to counterbalance the foreign influx by encouraging in every way French immigration and colonization, before saturation is reached and the new Algerian people has acquired its definitive characteristics.

We shall refrain from comparing in detail the results of the 1906 census with those of the 1901 census, as regards the different categories of Europeans. In 1901, the naturalized had been very incompletely and very inaccurately counted; since, moreover, the separately counted population had been distributed among the different columns of the detailed municipal population, it is difficult to determine the actual increase. We estimate, however, that, all things considered, the Europeans, excluding the Israelites, increased by approximately 40,000 persons, rising from 575,206 to 615,618 ¹². It would be entirely futile to attempt to distribute this increase among the French, the naturalized, and the foreigners.

Various signs seem to indicate that the formative period, what might be called the infancy of the Algerian people, is nearly over, and that its demographic characteristics are on the verge of becoming fixed. The statistics currently published ¹³ do not indicate the proportion of French born in Algeria and French born in France; but since 1891, perhaps even since 1886, the Algerians have been the more numerous ¹⁴. Moreover, in general terms, since 1896, the share of the birth rate has become greater than that of immigration in the growth of the European population.

This was to be expected: as a colonial settlement grows, the share of immigration, even when it maintains its contribution, diminishes relative to the total mass ¹⁵. Perhaps the major public works, notably the railway constructions to be undertaken in Algeria with borrowed funds, will bring about a strengthening of immigration in the coming years. The surplus of births over deaths has existed since 1856 in the European population; this surplus is increasingly large, but its increase is due above all to a decline in mortality, for in recent years the Algerian birth rate itself tends to decrease. Its rate, according to Mr Demontés ¹⁶, tends to settle around 29‰, a rate intermediate between that of Spain (35 or 36) and that of France (22). The mortality rate ¹⁷ has fallen to 20‰ or 21‰. Finally, whereas at the origin of all colonies the male sex outnumbers the female sex, because immigration brings mainly men, the numerical balance of the sexes ¹⁸ was reached in Algeria probably around 1901.

The 1906 census — and this is what makes it interesting — captures the various groups of the Algerian population at the precise moment when they are tending toward fusion, but still remain distinct, which will no longer be the case in a few decades. There is ethnic fusion, economic fusion, moral fusion; a new people is forming, the Algerian people ¹⁹.

Part II

Until now, only the French population had been counted in Tunisia: in 1906, the operations covered the entire European element, both French and foreign. Out of an assuredly excessive scruple, the indigenous were again left out. No doubt, for various reasons, they are not fond of censuses; however, the Tunisians have been under the French protectorate long enough for so simple an inquiry, if conducted with prudence, to arouse no susceptibility and present no inconvenience. At the very least, approximate data could have been obtained by employing the system used by Algeria in the Southern Territories, and by having lists drawn up by the cheikhs, the caïds, and the controllers. The indigenous Muslim population of Tunisia is estimated, quite arbitrarily, at 1,600,000 individuals. But we have a positive figure only for the number of those subject to the "medjba," which is 317,181 in 1906 ²⁰. The Israelites number 64,170, of whom 43,000 are in Tunis ²¹. On the other hand, the census provides very complete information on the European population; the conclusions that emerge from it are highlighted in an excellent report by Mr J. Bartholomé, Director of Agriculture, Commerce, and Colonization ²².

The 1906 census recorded in Tunisia the presence of a civilian European population of 128,895 persons. If one deducts the 2,297 Europeans from the Southern Territories and the Gafsa control district, there are 126,598 Europeans for an area of 66,380 sq. km.; the department of Constantine has 148,847 Europeans, from which 17,367 Israelites must be deducted, yielding a rather similar density ²³. Of these 128,895 Europeans, there are 34,610 French, of whom only 2,157 were naturalized, and 94,285 foreigners, including 81,156 Italians, 10,330 Maltese, 683 Greeks, 600 Spaniards, and 1,516 Europeans of various nationalities. The Tunis district alone contains more than 60% of the total Europeans: 78,519, of whom 61,497 in Tunis city; next comes the Bizerte district with 14,487 Europeans (7,585 in Bizerte city), that of Sousse with 8,131, and that of Sfax with 6,711. In terms of sex, male predominance is the rule in Tunisia (52 men for 48 women), for all Europeans as well as for each of the main colonies; but the gap is narrowing, and the balance between the sexes, as in Algeria, tends to become established. In terms of occupations, 55,368 Europeans live from industry (that is, in practice, from mining or public works enterprises), 22,805 from commerce, 17,561 from agriculture. 52% are illiterate (42%, if children under ten years of age are deducted). The proportion of foreigners speaking French is 36 per 100, and an ever-increasing number of foreign children attend our schools.

The French make up only 27% of the total European population; they rose from 10,030 in 1891 to 24,201 in 1901 and 34,610 in 1906; the increase over the last five years is slightly higher than during previous five-year periods, without being entirely satisfactory, however, because the share of metropolitan immigration remains quite low, and the growth is mainly due to Algerians and Tunisians themselves. In terms of origin, 9,239 French were born in Tunisia, 5,251 in Algeria, 18,439 in France, compared to 14,026 in 1901, an increase of 4,413 individuals (annual average: 883). Apart from the department of the Seine (426), they come mainly from the departments of the South and especially the Southeast (Corsica, 570). The Tunis control district has 18,626 French (14,222 in Tunis city), that of Bizerte 4,611. The increase reaches 5,833 individuals for the Tunis district, instead of 3,126 for the previous five-year period; it drops to 1,052 for that of Bizerte, instead of 2,625 from 1896 to 1901. In terms of occupations, the French colony includes 8,499 civil servants, 6,513 industrialists, 5,830 merchants, 4,443 farmers.

Just as the novelty of the 1906 census in Algeria is to provide the number of naturalized citizens, the innovation in Tunisia is to give for the first time the number of foreigners and in particular of Italians. The control established by the 1898 decree on the policing of foreigners required them to make a declaration upon arriving in Tunisia; it was these declarations, centralized at the Directorate of Public Safety, that had provided Mr G. Loth with the documents he used ²⁴. This control made it possible to quantify foreign immigration in Tunisia, but provided only imperfect information on the corresponding exodus and did not account for children born after their parents' registration. Even if one admits, which is likely, that a greater number of omissions occurred in the census for the foreign population than for the French population, it is nonetheless certain that the number of foreigners present in the Regency would tend to decrease or at most to remain stationary. Despite everything, the French are one against three foreigners in Tunisia, whereas, even in the province of Oran and after deducting the naturalized, they are one against two. It should be noted that 37,632 foreigners out of 94,285 were born in Tunisia, Algeria, or France.
The Italians, as is well known, form the great majority of the foreign colony: they number 81,156. As early as 1903, Mr Loth estimated their number at 80,000, an estimate lower than that of certain authors, and official statistics put them at 89,000 in 1905 ²⁵. Perhaps insufficient account had been taken of the floating population, which comes and goes back. 52,076 Italians are in the Tunis district, of whom 40,606 in Tunis city. 45,049, or 55% of the total, originate from Sicily; next come Sardinia (2,927), Naples (1,370), Tuscany (1,334). In terms of occupations, there are 44,594 industrialists (that is, workers or laborers), 12,241 merchants, 12,193 farmers.
The Maltese number 10,330, of whom only 1,867 were born in Malta; among them there are 3,768 industrialists, 3,742 merchants, 600 farmers. The other European elements are in negligible numbers ²⁶. And now, after having complained about the "Sicilian peril," people are now complaining that labor is becoming scarcer and more expensive, at the very time when it is greatly needed for public works, phosphate operations, and mines. The Italians are coming in smaller numbers, and the Tripolitanians or Sudanese have been driven away by the "medjba." This proves that the contribution of the foreign element is necessary for us, in Tunisia as well as in Algeria; therefore, we must endeavor not to discourage foreign immigration, but to increase by all means French immigration, which serves as a counterweight. Perhaps Spaniards could also be attracted to Tunisia, where their presence would be no more inconvenient than that of Italians in the province of Oran ²⁷.

Notes:

For Algeria, see Bulletin Officiel du Gouvernement Général de l'Algérie 1907, no. 1843, pp. 653-714; - Statistique générale de l'Algérie, year 1905, Appendix (Alger, 1906, in-8); - Exposé de la situation générale des Territoires du Sud, year 1906 (Alger, 1907, in-8), pp. 22-26; - V. Démontés, Le peuple algérien. Essais de démographie algérienne (Alger, 1906, in-8; see XVIth Bibliography 1906, no. 793 F).
We give for the 1901 census the figures corrected by the decree of September 6, 1902, as they appear in the Tableau des Communes de l'Algérie of 1902; these figures include the approximately 62,000 inhabitants of the Extreme South of Oran and of the Touat. They differ slightly from those given in the Chronicle of Annales de Géographie, XI, 1902, pp. 91-92.
This figure is reduced to 373,000, if one deducts approximately 55,000 troops, not counted in 1901.
Exposé de la situation des Territoires du Sud, p. 22.
The figures given in the following pages apply to the municipal population and include the Southern Territories.
V. DEMONTES, cited work, pp. 136 et seq.
In this category there are 32,353 individuals of Spanish origin, 12,221 of Italian origin, 4,716 of Maltese origin, and 1,508 of various European origins.
V. DEMONTES, cited work, pp. 25 et seq.
Ibid., p. 223.
Ibid., p. 304.
Augustin Bernard, La colonisation et le peuplement de l'Algérie d'après une enquête récente (Annales de Géographie, XVI, 1907, pp. 320-336).
Instead of the provisional figure of 619,000 (see Augustin Bernard, cited article, p. 334, note 1).
The statistical breakdowns relating to sex, age, marital status, and occupation of the persons counted will appear in the Statistique générale de l'Algérie for 1906, which has not yet been published.
V. DEMONTES, cited work, p. 73.
Gouvernement général de l'Algérie, Direction de l'Agriculture, du Commerce et de la Colonisation, Enquête sur Les Résultats de la Colonisation Officielle de 1871 à 1895. Report ... by Mr de Peyerimhoff (Alger, 1906), I, p. 204.
V. Démontés, cited work, p. 250.
Ibid., p. 323.
Ibid., p. 250.
There are in Algeria 6 cities of more than 20,000 inhabitants, of which 2 have more than 100,000 inhabitants. These cities are as follows:
Alger: 105,908 Europeans and 32,332 Natives: 138,240 Persons
Oran: 84,203 Europeans and 16,296 Natives: 100,499 Persons
Constantine: 25,310 Europeans and 21,496 Natives: 46,806 Persons
Bône: 28,120 Europeans and 7,884 Natives: 36,004 Persons
Sidi-Bel-Abbès: 18,197 Europeans and 6,297 Natives: 24,494 Persons
Tlemcen: 9,493 Europeans and 14,567 Natives: 24,060 Persons
Next come: Mostaganem (19,528 inhab.), Mascara (18,989), Blida (16,866), Philippeville (16,539), Sétif (12,261), Bougie (10,419). These figures include only the population concentrated in the main town of the commune.
Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Report to the President of the Republic on the situation of Tunisia in 1906, Statistique générale de la Tunisie (1906), Tunis, 1907, pp. 456-451. The "medjba," or capitation tax, applies to: 1° all male native subjects of the Bey, except those born and residing in Tunis, Sousse, Kairouan, Monastir, and Sfax; 2° foreign Muslims established in the territory of the Regency. It is estimated that, to obtain the approximate figure of the Muslim population, one must multiply by 5 the number of those liable to the "medjba."
Report to the President..., pp. 458-461.
See Bulletin de la Direction de l'Agriculture, du Commerce et de la Colonisation de la Régence de Tunis, 2nd quarter 1907, no. 43, pp. 167-229.
It is true that in Tunisia one must take into account the large city of Tunis, which accounts for a very large share of the density.
Gaston Loth, Le peuplement italien en Tunisie et en Algérie (Paris, 1903, in-8). - See Augustin Bernard, Le peuplement italien en Tunisie et en Algérie by Gaston Loth (Annales de Géographie, XIV, 1905, pp. 167-170).
Report on the situation of Tunisia in 1906, pp. 398-399. — See MINISTERO DEGLI AFFARI ESTERI, COMMISSARIATO DELL' EMIGRAZIONE, Emigrazione e colonie. Raccolta di rapporti dei RR. Agenti diplomatici e consolari. Vol. II. Asia- Africa- Oceania (Roma, 1906; see XVIth Bibliography 1906, no. 596).
According to information we owe to the kindness of Mr Victor Serres, civil controller attached to the Residency, the population of the main cities of Tunisia is estimated as follows:
Tunis: 100,000 Muslims, 43,000 Israelites, and 61,497 Europeans: 204,497 Persons
Sfax: 60,000 Muslims, 2,703 Israelites, and 6,366 Europeans: 69,069 Persons
Sousse: 12,454 Muslims, 3,134 Israelites, and 5,241 Europeans: 20,829 Persons
Bizerte: 9,500 Muslims, 1,009 Israelites, and 7,585 Europeans: 18,094 Persons
On the population of Tunis, see Сн. Monchicourt, La régence de Tunis (Annales de Géographie, XIII, 1904, pp. 145-170). Mr Monchicourt attributed to Tunis, in 1901, 173,000 inhabitants, of whom 80,730 Muslims, 39,230 Israelites, and 55,000 Europeans.
As for Morocco, the "third part" of the Barbary, where there can be no question of a census, the judicious considerations of Captain N. Larras, La population du Maroc (La Géographie, XIII, 1906, pp. 337-348) very rightly reduces, in our opinion, the estimate of the native population to 4 or 5 million Muslims, to which must be added approximately 300,000 Israelites and 8,000 Europeans, of whom 7,000 in Tanger.

Source:
Augustin Bernard. The 1906 census in Algeria and Tunisia
In: Annales de Géographie. 1908, vol. 17, no. 91. pp. 24-33.
doi : 10.3406/geo.1908.18205
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/geo_0003-4010_1908_num_17_91_18205