Geography Quiz Arcade

Rwanda 🇷🇼

Rwanda is a country in Africa with a population of 13,776,698. Its capital is Kigali. The official currency is RWF, and the main languages are Kinyarwanda, French, English.

Quick facts

  • Capital: Kigali
  • Continent: Africa
  • Population: 13,776,698
  • Area: 26,338 km²
  • Density: 523 people per km²
  • Currency: RWF
  • Languages: Kinyarwanda, French, English
  • ISO code: RW

Where Rwanda sits

Rwanda 🇷🇼 is one of 54 countries in Africa, with its capital at Kigali. It covers 26,338 square kilometres — 145th in the world — and is home to about 13,776,698 people, 76th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Rwanda compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Rwanda sits closest to Guinea and Benin. In land area, its nearest counterparts are North Macedonia and Haiti.

At 523 people per square kilometre it is about 8.8 times the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by population than by area, so it is more crowded than its size alone suggests.

Kinyarwanda is listed as official in Rwanda alone. The RWF is used by Rwanda and no one else.

To see Rwanda next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Rwanda

Kigali is near the geographical centre of the country, spread over rolling hills and ridges. Rwanda is called the 'Land of a Thousand Hills', and its capital is a city of hills too.

The flag of Rwanda: sky blue, yellow and green, with a gold sun

🇷🇼 The flag is three horizontal stripes of sky blue (twice as wide), yellow and green, with a gold sun with 24 rays in the top right corner. Blue stands for happiness and peace, yellow for economic development and mineral wealth, and green for hope for prosperity. The sun stands for unity and enlightenment. The flag was adopted on 31 December 2001.

Region and neighbours

Rwanda is a small landlocked country in East Africa, in the Great Rift Valley, a few degrees south of the equator. It shares land borders with 4 countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda is landlocked, with no coast on the open ocean.

Three facts about Rwanda

  1. Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda is home to about a third of all the mountain gorillas in the world.
  2. Lake Kivu, Rwanda's largest lake, runs along most of its western border and is up to 480 m deep.
  3. A stream in Rwanda's Nyungwe Forest is one of the places suggested as the farthest source of the River Nile.

Sources: Wikipedia: Rwanda, Wikipedia: Flag of Rwanda, Wikipedia: Kigali, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Rwanda

Quizzes that include Rwanda

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Rwanda those are:

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Read more about Rwanda

Nearby countries

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Rwanda flag?

The flag of Rwanda is three horizontal stripes of sky blue (twice as wide), yellow and green, with a gold sun with 24 rays in the top right corner. Blue stands for happiness and peace, yellow for economic development and mineral wealth, and green for hope for prosperity. The sun stands for unity and enlightenment. The flag was adopted on 31 December 2001.

Which countries border Rwanda?

Rwanda shares land borders with Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

How can I remember the capital of Rwanda?

Kigali is near the geographical centre of the country, spread over rolling hills and ridges. Rwanda is called the 'Land of a Thousand Hills', and its capital is a city of hills too.