Niger was formed in 1960, liberating itself from the colonial administration of France, but functioned under military rule until 1991. The country exists in north-western Africa, north of Nigeria, south of Algeria and Libya, east of Mali, and west of Chad. The conventional long form for the country is Republic of Niger. Given that the country functions under a history of French colonialism, the language of the government is French. The constitution has been consistently restructured, as recently as 2010, and the country is a republic with universal suffrage and a mixed legal system of French civil law, Islamic law, and local customary law. The country is constituted of nearly seventeen and a half million people, and is the 22nd largest country in the world. Despite its large size, only 11.79% of the land is arable.