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Kigali, 
Rwanda
1,483,711 people lived in Kigali in 2025. It is the 344th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Rwanda, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Kigali is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Kigali grew
For every 10 people in Kigali in 1980, there were 182.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.3 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Kigali through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kigali in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Rwanda · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Rwanda and its 5 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Kigali is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Kigali covered 287 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 55 km² of it. That is 37 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 9.9 times its size, and its people are 18.3 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Rwanda
Its share of Rwanda
Of every 100 people in Rwanda in 2025, 10 lived in Kigali, which is 1.5 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Rwanda, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Kigali's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 340 Baotou China1,491,964
- 341 Anyang China1,489,112
- 342 Moradabad India1,484,611
- 343 Taizhou China1,483,994
- 344 Kigali1,483,711
- 345 Raipur India1,478,688
- 346 Cordoba Argentina1,460,491
- 347 Xiuying District China1,458,377
- 348 Mombasa Kenya1,456,207
In Rwanda, 2025
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Kigali are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Kigali publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries