Congo DR

AfricaCapital city: KinshasaCapital metro: KinshasaPresident: Félix TshisekediPrime Minister: Judith Suminwa
2026 population
116.5M
Rank #12 globally
Area
2.3M km² (905k sq mi)
Metros tracked
25
31% of population in metros
Composite score
21.6
Rank #66 globally

population: UN projection (1 Jul 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 25 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography25 metros

Congo DR metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
25 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 25 tracked metros
25 metros
🗂️ Provinces

26 entries listed under Congo DR. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

26 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
French
Government
Republic
Legislature
Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Demonym
Congolese
Time zones
UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+243
Internet TLD
.cd
ISO 3166
CD
Established
1960
Highest point
Mount Stanley (5,109 m (16,762 ft))
National anthem
Debout Congolais

Facts via Wikidata.

📰 In the news1 story
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#169 / 191
0.522
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#80 / 193
$91.0B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#183 / 193
$807
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#183 / 190
$1.9k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#183 / 192
$720
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#182 / 194
62.1 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
15.8 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#140 / 194
45%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
3.2%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#136 / 193
47/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#151 / 193
1.0%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#157 / 175
0.11
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#148 / 166
44.7
World Bank · 2020
Internet users
#178 / 193
20%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#87 / 185
2.9%
World Bank · 2016
CO₂ per capita
#1 / 192
0.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#1 / 186
100%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations5 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History7 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Tshisekedi era

Judith Suminwa✦ Current

2024Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2024-presentUnion for Democracy and Social Progress

Félix Tshisekedi✦ Current

2019Present

President

Tenure: 2019-presentUnion for Democracy and Social Progress

Kabila era

Joseph Kabila

20012019

President

Tenure: 2001-2019People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy

Kabila era (post-Mobutu)

⚠️ Laurent-Désiré Kabila

19972001

President

Tenure: 1997-2001AFDL / PPRD

Mobutu dictatorship (Zaire)

⚠️ Mobutu Sese Seko

19651997

President

Tenure: 1965-1997Popular Movement of the Revolution

First Republic

Joseph Kasa-Vubu

19601965

President

Tenure: 1960-1965Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO)

First Republic (independence)

Patrice Lumumba

19601960

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1960Mouvement National Congolais
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#62 · 0.2%
Latent vs recognised
Under-recognised: more mass than standing
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Congo DR · share of world power, 1960–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19452 interstate wars · click to expand
Rwanda,March 23 Movement
Combat deaths: 7,000+
Combat deaths: 235,000–250,000

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
106m
#15 in the world
Since 1800
20×
from 5.2m
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
1.3%
0.53% in 1800
29.1m58.2m87.3m116m18001850190019502000
Congo DR · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Congo DR: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
218m
95% band 165m to 281m
2100
431m
95% band 230m to 1.31bn
2100 against 2025
3.82×
median still rising in 2100
344m689m1.03bn1.38bn1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
564k born · 327k died · +4k net migration
TFR 5.97 · life expectancy 38.2 · median age 17.1
1960
718k born · 355k died · +28k net migration
TFR 6.11 · life expectancy 40.8 · median age 17.3
1970
958k born · 425k died · +39k net migration
TFR 6.33 · life expectancy 43.3 · median age 17.3
1980
1.2m born · 507k died · +52k net migration
TFR 6.50 · life expectancy 45.5 · median age 16.8
1990
1.7m born · 618k died · +219k net migration
TFR 6.65 · life expectancy 48.5 · median age 16.7
2000
2.3m born · 738k died · +79k net migration
TFR 6.70 · life expectancy 51.9 · median age 16.1
2010
3.0m born · 799k died · +9k net migration
TFR 6.59 · life expectancy 56.4 · median age 15.7
2020
4.0m born · 894k died · -2k net migration
TFR 6.21 · life expectancy 60.4 · median age 15.8
Show all 16 decades
2030
5.0m born · 1.0m died · -35k net migration
TFR 5.42 · life expectancy 63.0 · median age 16.2
2040
5.6m born · 1.2m died · -43k net migration
TFR 4.38 · life expectancy 64.6 · median age 17.8
2050
6.3m born · 1.5m died · -46k net migration
TFR 3.66 · life expectancy 66.0 · median age 20.0
2060
6.7m born · 1.8m died · -52k net migration
TFR 3.14 · life expectancy 67.2 · median age 22.3
2070
6.9m born · 2.2m died · -48k net migration
TFR 2.77 · life expectancy 68.4 · median age 24.6
2080
7.0m born · 2.7m died · -68k net migration
TFR 2.50 · life expectancy 69.6 · median age 27.1
2090
6.9m born · 3.3m died · -61k net migration
TFR 2.30 · life expectancy 70.7 · median age 29.6
2100
6.8m born · 3.9m died · -63k net migration
TFR 2.16 · life expectancy 71.9 · median age 31.8

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Congo DR on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.

National Teams Champions

Every major championship won by Congo DR's national teams, newest first. 2 in total.

1974· 1974-03-14
1968· 1968-01-21