algeria

The 69 wilayas and 1541 communes of Algeria, taken from the Journal officiel, with French and Arabic names, ONS codes, and search that understands the many ways a place name gets spelled.

Up to date with loi 26-06 of 4 April 2026, which took the country from 58 to 69 wilayas, and decret presidentiel 26-206, which numbered the new ones 59 to 69.

npm install @syscli/algeria

import { wilaya, communes, commune, search, changes } from "@syscli/algeria";

wilaya(16);                 // { code: "16", nameFr: "Alger", nameAr: ..., createdBy: "loi 84-09" }
communes(68).length;        // 23
commune("1601")?.wilayaCode; // "16"

search("bou saada")[0].wilaya.code;  // "68"
search("Bains Romains")[0].commune;  // Hammamet, found by its old official name
search("tamanghaset")[0].commune;    // Tamenghasset, despite the typo

changes(2026).length;       // 108 communes moved to another wilaya in 2026

Search accepts French or Arabic, with or without accents, articles or the usual transliteration variants (Djelfa / Jelfa, Beni / Bni, Ouled / Oulad), and older official names of renamed communes.

Which commune is this point in

import { communeAt, wilayaAt, bounds } from "@syscli/algeria/geo";

communeAt(35.2083, 4.1736)?.nameFr;  // "Bou Saada"
wilayaAt(35.2083, 4.1736)?.code;     // "68"
bounds(16);                          // [2.7999, 36.5794, 3.3826, 36.8209], west south east north

Arguments are latitude then longitude, as GPS and map apps show them. The boundaries are a separate import so that the main package stays small: they add about 1.1 MB (430 KB gzipped) and answer a lookup in a few microseconds. They are accurate to about 100 m, so a point right on a boundary can land in the neighbouring commune. Menaa (0506) has no shape in the source data.

Site, API and downloads

AlgerieGeo, the site at https://syscli.github.io/algeria/, lets anyone look up a commune, its wilaya, and whether it moved in 2026. It is in French and Arabic and links every answer to the Journal officiel text behind it.

The same build publishes a static JSON API, free to use without a key:

endpoint
/api/v1/wilayas.json	the 69 wilayas
/api/v1/wilayas/{code}.json	one wilaya with its communes
/api/v1/communes.json	all 1541 communes
/api/v1/communes/{code}.json	one commune by ONS code
/api/v1/changes/2026.json, /api/v1/changes/2019.json	communes moved by each reform

Downloads: CSV, JSON, SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite) and GeoJSON boundaries for the 69, 58 and 48 wilaya maps and for the communes, under /downloads/.

Why another list

Most lists in circulation still have 48 or 58 wilayas, carry no license, and do not say where their data comes from. Here every wilaya and every commune traces back to a text published in the Journal officiel, and the files in sources/ tell you which one.

Data

Plain CSV, one row per entry, in data/. Use the files directly if you do not need the npm package.

data/wilayas.csv

column
code	01 to 69, also the vehicle plate number
name_fr, name_ar	name fixed by decree 84-79, 21-117 or 26-206
created_by	the law that created the wilaya
communes	number of communes

data/communes.csv

column
code	four-digit ONS code
wilaya_code	current wilaya (69-wilaya map)
name_fr, name_ar	name from the most recent official text that lists the commune
daira_1991	daira seat in decret executif 91-306
wilaya_code_58	wilaya under the 58-wilaya map (2019 to 2026)
wilaya_code_48	wilaya under the 48-wilaya map (1984 to 2019)
name_fr_source, name_ar_source	the text the name was taken from
aliases	older official names and other spellings, separated by `

How the data was built

• Loi 84-09 (1984) gives the communes of each of the first 48 wilayas.
• Ordonnance 97-14 (1997) moves 24 communes from Boumerdes, Tipaza and Blida to Algiers.
• Loi 19-12 (2019) and loi 26-06 (2026) rewrite the lists of the wilayas they split and add the new ones.
• Decret executif 91-306 (1991) lists every commune by daira; it is the source for dairas and for communes renamed between 1984 and 1991.
• Wilaya names come from decret 84-79, decret presidentiel 21-117 and decret presidentiel 26-206.

The 1984, 1991 and 1997 issues are scans. Their lists were transcribed by hand and checked against the number of communes each article declares. ONS codes were matched by name.

Known gaps

• Dairas are given as of 1991. Some have changed since.
• A few communes appear under a new name in 1991 without a renaming text that we could find. The 1991 name is used and the old one kept in aliases.
• The ONS code of Larbaa (Batna) is taken as 0561 from its position in the 1984 list.

Corrections are welcome. Please cite the Journal officiel issue and page.

Building

npm ci
npm test
npm run build        # package in dist/
npm run build:site   # site, API and downloads in public/
npm run serve        # preview public/ on http://localhost:4173
npm run build:geo    # rebuild geo/ from the open boundary sources

Python

The same data and search, with the same answers (checked in CI against this package on every commune name):

pip install syscli-algeria

from syscli_algeria import wilaya, search
search("bou saada")[0].wilaya.code   # "68"

The source is in python/.

Related projects

project	what	get it
algeria	the 69 wilayas and 1541 communes, search, GPS lookups	npm @syscli/algeria, PyPI syscli-algeria, site AlgerieGeo
dz-format	checks for phone numbers, RIP and RIB keys, plates, NIF, RC and more	npm @syscli/dz-format, PyPI dz-format, playground
algeria-mcp	both of the above for AI assistants	npm @syscli/algeria-mcp, MCP Registry io.github.syscli/algeria-mcp

Releases and security

Versions are listed in CHANGELOG.md. Releases are published from GitHub Actions with npm provenance; npm audit signatures checks them. To report a security problem, see SECURITY.md.

License

Code and data: MIT. Boundaries in geo/ and the @syscli/algeria/geo entry: CC BY-SA 2.0, derived from OpenStreetMap; see geo/README.md. If you ship communeAt or wilayaAt in a product, credit "(c) OpenStreetMap contributors".