Page last updated on February 28, 2018

Population:
11,901,484
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2017 est.)
country comparison to the world: 76
[see also: Population country ranks ]

Nationality:
noun: Rwandan(s)
adjective: Rwandan

Ethnic groups:
Hutu (Bantu), Tutsi (Hamitic), Twa (Pygmy)

Languages:
Kinyarwanda (official, universal Bantu vernacular) 93.2%, French (official) <.1, English (official) <.1, Swahili (or Kiswahili, used in commercial centers) <.1, more than one language, other 6.3%, unspecified 0.3% (2002 est.)

Religions:
Protestant 50.2% (includes Adventist 12% and other Protestant 38.2%), Roman Catholic 44.3%, Muslim 2%, other 0.9% (includes traditionalist/animist), none 2.5%, unspecified <.1 (2002 est.)

Demographic profile:
Rwanda’s fertility rate declined sharply during the last decade, as a result of the government’s commitment to family planning, the increased use of contraceptives, and a downward trend in ideal family size. Increases in educational attainment, particularly among girls, and exposure to social media also contributed to the reduction in the birth rate. The average number of births per woman decreased from a 5.6 in 2005 to 4.5 in 2016. Despite these significant strides in reducing fertility, Rwanda’s birth rate remains very high and will continue to for an extended period of time because of its large population entering reproductive age. Because Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, its persistent high population growth and increasingly small agricultural landholdings will put additional strain on families’ ability to raise foodstuffs and access potable water. These conditions will also hinder the government’s efforts to reduce poverty and prevent environmental degradation. The UNHCR recommended that effective 30 June 2013 countries invoke a cessation of refugee status for those Rwandans who fled their homeland between 1959 and 1998, including the 1994 genocide, on the grounds that the conditions that drove them to seek protection abroad no longer exist. The UNHCR’s decision is controversial because many Rwandan refugees still fear persecution if they return home, concerns that are supported by the number of Rwandans granted asylum since 1998 and by the number exempted from the cessation. Rwandan refugees can still seek an exemption or local integration, but host countries are anxious to send the refugees back to Rwanda and are likely to avoid options that enable them to stay. Conversely, Rwanda itself hosts almost 160,000 refugees as of 2017; virtually all of them fleeing conflict in neighboring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Age structure:
0-14 years: 41.38% (male 2,485,386/female 2,439,101)
[see also: Age structure - 0-14 years country ranks ]
15-24 years: 19.34% (male 1,151,657/female 1,149,928)
[see also: Age structure - 15-24 years country ranks ]
25-54 years: 32.77% (male 1,845,501/female 2,054,410)
[see also: Age structure - 25-54 years country ranks ]
55-64 years: 4.09% (male 216,725/female 269,972)
[see also: Age structure - 55-64 years country ranks ]
65 years and over: 2.43% (male 113,822/female 174,982) (2017 est.)

NOTE: 1) The information regarding Rwanda on this page is re-published from the 2018 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Rwanda People 2018 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Rwanda People 2018 should be addressed to the CIA.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
  a) The assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
  b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order

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