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Rubavu, 
Rwanda
337,963 people lived in Rubavu in 2025. It is the 1691st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Rwanda.
Like every city on this site, Rubavu 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 Rubavu grew
Where Rubavu had 10 people in 1990, it had 41.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 695,153 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Rubavu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Rubavu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Rwanda · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Rubavu is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Rwanda in 2025, 5 in all, led by Kigali, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Rubavu covered 71 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 12 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 3.1 times its size, and its people are 4.1 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, 2 lived in Rubavu, which is 337,963 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Rwanda; the coloured squares live in Rubavu. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1687 Yan'an China338,883
- 1688 Naogaon Bangladesh338,623
- 1689 Naga Philippines338,596
- 1690 Ikere-Ekiti Nigeria338,367
- 1691 Rubavu337,963
- 1692 Franca Brazil337,878
- 1693 Vilnius Lithuania337,871
- 1694 Sihui China337,299
- 1695 Mandi Bahauddin Pakistan337,161
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 Rubavu are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Rubavu 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