The Republic of Rwanda
Internal Migration
About 940,593 people have recently migrated internally
in 5 years preceding the census with 39% and 35% of
them living in the Eastern Province and Kigali city
respectively. The Northern Province had the least
recent immigrants 4%.
2012 POPULATION AND
HOUSING CENSUS
The population density at the time of the census was
415 persons per square kilometre; making Rwanda one
of the most densely populated countries in the world.
Macau
20,497
Monaco
15,255
Singapore
7,681
Hong Kong
Objective
To provide a comprehensive snapshot of basic
information on the resident population of Rwanda,
its major characteristics and housing arrangements.
4,751
Gibraltar
4,467
Vatican City
1,900
Bahrain
1,643
Maldives
1,324
Malta
1,297
Bermuda
1,279
Sint Maarten
1,150
Guernsey
The results complement finding of previous statistics
work.
Population Projections
The population of Rwanda grew at about 2.6% every
year between 2002 and 2012. However, it is expected to
reach 13.3 million in 2022 and 16.5 million in 2032 and
double towards 2047 if projected figures are realised. In
2062, the population is expected to reach 25.4 millions.
2012
6,480
Gaza Strip
Bangladesh
Census results
Total Population
Population Density
1,119
838
Jersey
819
Taiwan
646
Mauritius
644
Korea, South
490
Rwanda
415
Netherlands
403
Lebanon
398
Burundi
379
Israel
365
Belgium
342
United Kingdom
259
Uganda
140
Kenya
74
Tanzania
50
United States
32
DRC
31
Source: Index mundi & 2012 Rwanda Population and Housing Census,
2022
Population Density by sectors
Life expectancy at birth
Total life expectancy at birth in Rwanda has increased
by 13.2 years in the last ten years from 51.2 to 64.4
years; an indication of overall increasing good health
and wellbeing of the population.
2032
2062
Electricity
Household access to electricity increased from 1% to
18% between 1978 and 2012.
Access to electricity
18%
Settlement
About 49% of households are in clustered rural
settlements “Imidugudu”, 34% in dispersed areas,
14% squatter housings and only 2% are planned urban
housing nationally. Such distribution of settlements
varies significantly between rural and urban areas.
Rwanda
1%
5%
1%
14%
2%
2%
Umudugudu
Dispersed
1978
1991
2002
2012
Planned
49%
Squarter
Information and communication
technology
Other
34%
0% 5%
Rural
1%
Urban
1%
19%
54
11%
38%
58%
42
1978
56%
11%
1991
27
2002
29
2012
0.1
Radio
Television
Urbanisation
About 17% of the population is living in urban areas
on 4% of the land.
8
2
Cell phones
0.1
2
Computer
% of total population
75
% of total area
91
Unemployment
Although total unemployment rate is 3.4%, urban
unemployment rate is 7.7%; 12.1% for those with
upper secondary and university education; and
about 67% of all unemployed people are youth aged
16 – 34 years. While overall youth unemployment
is 4.1%, urban youth unemployment is 8.7%.
For more information
www.statistics.gov.rw; email: info@statistics.gov.rw
17
8
Urban Peri-urban Rural
4
Policy issues that can be derived from the census
findings are diverse covering social, demographic and
economic dimensions.
Rwanda faces competing challenges of population
density, settlement, urbanisation and agriculture
development. Industry and service sectors also have
to be developed together with the necessary skills set
of Rwandans.
The census results confirm the need to fast track
economic development. Agriculture for example
should grow higher than population growth if current
food security is to be maintained and much higher
if it is to further support poverty reduction, agroprocessing industries and trade.
Likewise there is a lot of potential in industry and
service sectors to cover demand in goods and services,
keep up with population growth and provide jobs that
young people need.
Household access to key communication technology assets (in %)
64
Policy Perspective
6
Urban Peri-urban Rural
For more information
www.statistics.gov.rw; email: info@statistics.gov.rw
The trends in utilities like access to electricity is
impressive, although a huge gap remains. Use of ICT’s
especially mobile phones is phenomenon providing a
platform for further IT business initiatives and catalytic
potential in facilitating other industries.
Rwandans are living longer due to improving health. The
population is expected to continue growing relatively
fast before it slows down and doubling by 2047. This
will put pressure on services, economic opportunities
and land, rising population density to a record high of
about 830 persons per square kilometre.
Population growth in itself is not a problem. In the
short to medium term, the main challenge will be to
equip the young generations with necessary skills and
establishing the right environment in which they will
be productive to their full potential.
In about 30 to 50 years Rwanda has a demographic
window in which the labour force, particularly
the proportion of young people vis-à-vis the total
population will be considerably high and dependency
low. During this time Rwanda will potentially start
reaping alot from its population. Preparations however
have to start now.
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