Rwanda

AfricaCapital city: KigaliCapital metro: KigaliPresident: Paul Kagame
2026 population
14.4M
Rank #78 globally
Area
26k km² (10k sq mi)
Metros tracked
3
20% of population in metros
Composite score
6.1
Rank #123 globally

population: National annual projection (1 Jul 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 3 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography3 metros

Rwanda metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
3 polygons

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

🏙️ 3 tracked metros
3 metros
#439Kigali★ Capital▲ Largest
5.7
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

5 entries listed under Rwanda across 2 types. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

5 total

Cities (1)

📋 At a glance
Official languages
French, English, Swahili, Kinyarwanda
Government
Semi-presidential system
Legislature
Parliament of Rwanda
Demonym
Rwandan
Time zone
UTC+02:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+250
Internet TLD
.rw
ISO 3166
RW
Established
1962
Highest point
Mount Karisimbi (4,507 m (14,787 ft))
National anthem
Rwanda Nziza

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#157 / 191
0.578
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#140 / 193
$16.4B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#174 / 193
$1.1k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#163 / 190
$4.2k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#169 / 192
$1.1k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#145 / 194
68.0 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
19.4 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#172 / 194
31%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.2%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#10 / 193
566/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#107 / 193
3.6%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#111 / 175
0.38
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#117 / 166
39.4
World Bank · 2023
Internet users
#167 / 193
32%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#144 / 185
5.9%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#12 / 192
0.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#68 / 186
50%
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

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History18 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.

Justin Nsengiyumva

2025

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 11m

Édouard Ngirente

20172025

Prime Minister

Tenure: 7y 10m

Anastase Murekezi

20142017

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 1m

Pierre Habumuremyi

20112014

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 9m

Paul Kagame✦ Current

2000Present

President

Tenure: 26y 2m

Bernard Makuza

20002011

Prime Minister

Tenure: 11y 6m

Pierre-Célestin Rwigema

19952000

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4y 6m

Faustin Twagiramungu

19941995

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 1m

Pasteur Bizimungu

19942000

President

Tenure: 5y 8m

Jean Kambanda

19941994

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 3m

Théodore Sindikubwabo

19941994

President

Tenure: 0y 3m

Agathe Uwilingiyimana

19931994

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 8m
Show all 18 leaders

Dismas Nsengiyaremye

19921993

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 3m

Sylvestre Nsanzimana

19911992

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 5m

Juvénal Habyarimana

19731994

President

Tenure: 20y 9m

Grégoire Kayibanda

19611973

President

Tenure: 11y 8m

Grégoire Kayibanda

19611962

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 5m

Dominique Mbonyumutwa

19611961

President

Tenure: 0y 8m
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#117 · 0.1%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Rwanda · share of world power, 1962–2026

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 19454 interstate wars · click to expand
Combat deaths:
Combat deaths: 4,051+
Zaire,Sudan,Chad,FAR,ALiR,Interahamwe,CNDD-FDD,UNITA,ADF,FLNC
Combat deaths: 235,000–250,000

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

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
14.0m
#77 in the world
Since 1800
15×
from 928k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.17%
0.09% in 1800
3.7m7.4m11.2m14.9m18001850190019502000
Rwanda · 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 Rwanda: 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
22.7m
95% band 12.9m to 39.9m
2100
32.8m
95% band 12.2m to 99.8m
2100 against 2025
2.25×
median still rising in 2100
26.2m52.4m78.6m105m1950197520002025205020752100

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
126k born · 49k died · +1k net migration
TFR 8.15 · life expectancy 43.2 · median age 17.2
1960
160k born · 59k died · -13k net migration
TFR 8.28 · life expectancy 47.0 · median age 14.4
1970
192k born · 73k died · +1k net migration
TFR 8.15 · life expectancy 47.1 · median age 14.7
1980
282k born · 97k died · -16k net migration
TFR 8.12 · life expectancy 48.1 · median age 15.4
1990
325k born · 117k died · -41k net migration
TFR 6.80 · life expectancy 47.8 · median age 14.5
2000
346k born · 125k died · -154k net migration
TFR 5.97 · life expectancy 47.8 · median age 15.2
2010
363k born · 76k died · -30k net migration
TFR 4.52 · life expectancy 62.8 · median age 17.5
2020
392k born · 80k died · -22k net migration
TFR 3.91 · life expectancy 67.0 · median age 18.9
Show all 16 decades
2030
423k born · 93k died · -17k net migration
TFR 3.33 · life expectancy 69.3 · median age 21.2
2040
453k born · 110k died · +23k net migration
TFR 2.92 · life expectancy 71.1 · median age 23.4
2050
460k born · 132k died · -32k net migration
TFR 2.61 · life expectancy 72.8 · median age 25.8
2060
458k born · 163k died · -25k net migration
TFR 2.37 · life expectancy 74.4 · median age 28.3
2070
456k born · 200k died · -14k net migration
TFR 2.20 · life expectancy 75.9 · median age 30.9
2080
437k born · 236k died · -12k net migration
TFR 2.06 · life expectancy 77.4 · median age 33.5
2090
420k born · 274k died · -45k net migration
TFR 1.96 · life expectancy 78.9 · median age 35.9
2100
401k born · 307k died · -23k net migration
TFR 1.89 · life expectancy 80.3 · median age 38.1

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

Rwanda on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.