Formation of Relief Features in Rwanda
Senior 4 · Geography
Formation of Relief Features in Rwanda
Lesson 1 of 5
25 min
Figure 1 was drawn from the official district boundaries. Before reading on, use it to answer three questions: Which countries border Rwanda? Which province has the most districts? Roughly how far is it from the western border on Lake Kivu to the eastern border with Tanzania?
Figure 1: Rwanda's administrative divisions. Boundaries: geoBoundaries (Open Data Rwanda), CC BY 4.0; neighbouring countries and Lake Kivu: Natural Earth. The small map locates Rwanda (red) in East Africa.
Absolute location. Rwanda lies just south of the equator, between latitudes 1°04′ S and 2°51′ S (NISR, Statistical Yearbook 2019). Measured on the national boundary file used for Figure 1, it lies between longitudes 28°52′ E and 30°54′ E.
Relative location. Rwanda is bordered by Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, where much of the border runs through Lake Kivu and along the Rusizi River. It is landlocked: its goods reach the Indian Ocean through neighbouring countries, by road to the ports of Mombasa (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).
Definition
Absolute location: the position of a place given by latitude and longitude. Relative location: the position of a place described in relation to other places (neighbours, seas, routes).
Landlocked country: a country with no coastline. Example: Rwanda, whose nearest seaports are in Kenya and Tanzania.
Worked example 1: how big is Rwanda from north to south and from west to east?
North–south. One degree of latitude is about 111 km everywhere. The difference in latitude is
West–east. A degree of longitude shrinks towards the poles: its length is km at latitude . Near the middle of Rwanda, , so
Rwanda is about 200 km from north to south and 225 km from west to east at its widest. On Figure 1 the scale bar confirms this.
NISR gives Rwanda's total surface area as 26,338 km², of which 24,210 km² is land and 2,120 km² is water and swamps (Statistical Yearbook 2019). Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African mainland, yet, as the next section shows, one of the most densely populated.
Worked example 2: reading official figures critically
Problem. What percentage of Rwanda's area is water and swamps? Do the yearbook's figures add up?
Solution.
Adding the parts: km², which is 8 km² less than the total of 26,338 km². The difference is only 0.03%, probably from rounding, but a careful geographer notices such gaps and says which figure was used.
Since 1 January 2006 Rwanda has been divided into four provinces (intara) and the City of Kigali. These are divided into districts (uturere), sectors (imirenge), cells (utugari) and villages (imidugudu).
| Province | Districts | Number of districts | Sectors |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Kigali | Gasabo, Kicukiro, Nyarugenge | 3 | 35 |
| Northern | Burera, Gakenke, Gicumbi, Musanze, Rulindo | 5 | 89 |
| Southern | Gisagara, Huye, Kamonyi, Muhanga, Nyamagabe, Nyanza, Nyaruguru, Ruhango | 8 | 100 |
| Western | Karongi, Ngororero, Nyabihu, Nyamasheke, Rubavu, Rusizi, Rutsiro | 7 | 97 |
| Eastern | Bugesera, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Kirehe, Ngoma, Nyagatare, Rwamagana | 7 | 95 |
| Rwanda | 30 | 416 |
The 416 sectors contain 2,148 cells and 14,837 villages (NISR, Statistical Yearbook 2019, table of administrative entities).
Tip
Remember the ladder: province → district → sector → cell → village (intara → akarere → umurenge → akagari → umudugudu). Services and planning follow it: a health centre usually serves a sector, a district hospital a district.
The Fifth Rwanda Population and Housing Census counted 13,246,394 residents on 15 August 2022. The main indicators below are all from NISR's census report.
| Indicator (2022) | Value |
|---|---|
| Average annual growth rate, 2012–2022 | 2.3% |
| Women | 51.5% of the population |
| Urban population | 27.9% |
| Population density | 503 people per km² |
| Crude birth rate | 27.8 per 1,000 |
| Crude death rate | 6.3 per 1,000 |
| Total fertility rate | 3.6 children per woman |
| Life expectancy at birth | 69.6 years (men 67.7, women 71.2) |
By province, the Eastern Province had the most people (3,563,145) and the City of Kigali the fewest (1,745,555) but by far the highest density (2,401 per km²).
Worked example 3: what does 2.3% a year mean?
Problem. If the population kept growing at 2.3% a year, how long would it take to double?
Solution. After years the population is . Doubling means :
A quick check is the "rule of 70": years. Rwanda's population would double in about 30 years, which is why land, schools and jobs are central planning questions. (A unit later in S4 studies population in depth.)
Warning
Always give a figure with its year and source. "Rwanda has 13 million people" is weak; "13,246,394 residents in August 2022 (NISR census)" is a fact that can be checked. Population figures change every year.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Data: Statistical Yearbook 2019 (latitude, area, administrative entities) and Fifth Rwanda Population and Housing Census, 2022: Main Indicators Report, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).
Figure 1 was drawn by Ganzaa. District and national boundaries: geoBoundaries (William & Mary geoLab), from Open Data Rwanda, CC BY 4.0; longitudes were measured on this boundary file. Countries and Lake Kivu: Natural Earth, public domain.
The rest of the lesson, the worked examples and the exercises were written by Ganzaa.
Quick check
Which countries border Rwanda?
