Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda

Lessons

Senior 4 · Geography

Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda

5 lessons

Lesson 1 of 5

Rural Settlements: Types, Characteristics and Factors

25 min

Two households in three live in an umudugudu

The 2022 census recorded the type of place where each of Rwanda's 3,312,743 private households lives. Figure 1 shows the result by province.

Figure 1. Type of habitat of private households by province, 2022. Drawn by Ganzaa from NISR, RPHC5 Table 63.

Compare the Eastern and Northern provinces. Which has more grouped settlement? Which has more scattered homesteads? Keep your answer: this lesson explains the difference.

Definition

Settlement: a place where people live, from a single homestead to a city, with its buildings and services. Rural settlement: a settlement whose people mainly depend on farming and other primary activities, with low density and few services.

Settlement pattern: how the dwellings are arranged on the land: dispersed (scattered homesteads), nucleated (clustered around a centre) or linear (in a line along a road, ridge or valley).

Umudugudu (plural imidugudu): the village, the smallest administrative unit; also used for a planned rural settlement where houses are grouped on a laid-out site.

Types of rural settlement in Rwanda

Figure 2. The three settlement patterns in plan view (schematic), drawn by Ganzaa.

Pattern	Features	Where in Rwanda (2022)
Dispersed (isolated homesteads)	Each family's house (urugo) stands on its own plot, surrounded by its fields, bananas and woodlot	14.9% of households; most common in the Northern Province (22.3%), especially Rulindo (40.2%) and Gicumbi (39.6%)
Nucleated: planned rural settlement (umudugudu)	Houses grouped on a laid-out site, often near a road, water point, school or health centre; fields lie outside the village	65.4% of households; 86.5% in the Eastern Province, 96.3% in Ngoma
Nucleated: integrated model village	A fully planned village with houses, water, electricity, a school, a health post and sometimes biogas or livestock units	0.8% of households
Linear	Houses and shops strung along a road, ridge or lake shore; trading centres grow at junctions	Along main roads and ridge tops, for example roadside trading centres

Percentages: NISR, RPHC5 Table 63.

Homesteads scattered among trees, bananas and small fields on a plateau in rural Rwanda: a dispersed pattern, with each house on its own plot. Photo: Jake73, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Worked example 1: from percentages to households

Problem. Rwanda had 3,312,743 private households in 2022. How many lived in planned rural settlements (65.4%) and how many in dispersed housing (14.9%)?

0.654 \times 3\,312\,743 = 2\,166\,534 \qquad 0.149 \times 3\,312\,743 = 493\,599

About 2.17 million households lived in imidugudu and about 0.49 million in dispersed homesteads: more than four grouped households for every scattered one.

Characteristics of rural settlements

Economy: most people farm crops and keep livestock; some trade, make crafts or work on public works.
Size and density: small populations and low density; houses separated by fields in the dispersed pattern.
Buildings: mainly one-storey houses of sun-dried or fired bricks with iron-sheet or tile roofs.
Services: fewer services than towns: primary schools, health posts, water points and small markets; secondary schools and hospitals further away.
Society: close family and community ties; activities such as umuganda are organised by the village.

Factors influencing rural settlement

Factor	Effect on where and how people settle
Relief	Houses are built on hill slopes and ridge tops; valley floors are avoided because they flood and are kept for farming; very steep slopes are avoided because of landslides
Water supply	Settlements grow near springs, rivers, lakes and piped water points
Soils	Fertile soils (volcanic north-west) attract dense settlement
Accessibility	Roads attract linear settlement and trading centres
Services	Schools, health centres, markets and electricity draw houses together
Government policy	Grouped settlement in imidugudu; relocation away from high-risk zones (lesson 2)
Land availability and history	Much land in the east was newly settled after 1994 (REMA, 2009), mostly after the Cabinet adopted grouped settlement in December 1996, so it was laid out as villages
Security and social ties	People settle near relatives and for mutual protection

Worked example 2: why is the north more dispersed than the east?

Data (2022). Dispersed housing: Northern Province 22.3% (Rulindo 40.2%, Gicumbi 39.6%); Eastern Province 7.4% (Ngoma 2.1%). Planned rural settlement: North 70.5%, East 86.5%.

Analysis.

Relief. The north has steep, closely spaced hills; flat land for a grouped village is scarce, and families live on the slopes they farm. The east has gentler relief with space to lay out villages.
History. Much land in the east was settled after 1994 (REMA, 2009), largely after the grouped-settlement policy of December 1996, so it was laid out as villages; settlement in the north is old, and homesteads were already in place.
Farming. Intensive farming of small hillside plots favours living on the plot; extensive farming and grazing in the east fit better with villages and fields outside them.

Conclusion. The pattern reflects relief and history as much as policy: the same policy produced different results in different landscapes.

Warning

"Umudugudu" has two meanings. It is the name of the smallest administrative unit (Rwanda has 14,837 villages), and it is also used for a planned, grouped rural settlement. In a settlement question, make clear that you mean the planned settlement pattern.

Mr. Sinn: "Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods". Clustered, dispersed and linear rural settlement and why each forms. Decide which pattern each part of Figure 1 represents.

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Practice

Distinguish dispersed, nucleated and linear settlement, with a Rwandan example of each.
Give four characteristics of rural settlements in Rwanda.
Explain three physical factors that influence where rural settlements are built.
Gicumbi had 448,824 people. If 39.6% of its households were dispersed and the average household had 4.0 people, roughly how many people lived in dispersed homesteads?
Use Figure 1 to compare the habitat of households in the City of Kigali and the Eastern Province.
Why do houses in Rwanda's countryside avoid valley floors?
"Relief is the most important factor in the pattern of rural settlement in Rwanda." Discuss.

Show answersHide answers

Dispersed: scattered homesteads on the hills (Rulindo, Gicumbi). Nucleated: houses grouped in a planned umudugudu (most of the Eastern Province). Linear: houses and shops along a main road or ridge top (trading centres along main roads).
Any four: mainly farming; small and low-density; one-storey brick houses; few services; close social ties; fields and banana groves around houses.
Relief (slopes and ridges, avoiding floods and landslides); water supply (springs, rivers); soils (fertile land attracts people).
$0.396 \times 448\,824 \approx 177\,700$ people (assuming household size is similar in all habitat types).
Kigali: mostly planned urban (42.4%) and spontaneous/squatter housing (40.1%), very little umudugudu (3.8%). East: mostly umudugudu (86.5%), few dispersed (7.4%) or squatter (2%) households.
Valley floors are waterlogged and flood in the rainy seasons, may be breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and are valuable farmland (marshland rice and vegetables) protected by law in many places.
Relief strongly shapes the pattern (dispersed homesteads on steep northern hills, villages on gentler eastern land), but government policy, the history of resettlement after 1994, roads and services also matter. A good answer concludes that relief sets limits while policy and history decide much of the pattern.

Quick check

Match each settlement pattern to its description.

Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.

Key points

Patterns: dispersed (14.9% of households, 2022), nucleated (planned umudugudu 65.4%, integrated model villages 0.8%) and linear (along roads and ridges).
Grouped settlement dominates the east (86.5%); dispersed homesteads are commonest in the north (22.3%; Rulindo 40.2%).
Rural settlements: farming-based, small, low-density, few services, close social ties.
Factors: relief, water, soils, roads, services, government policy, land and history, security and social ties.

Sources and credits

Source: Fifth Rwanda Population and Housing Census, 2022: Main Indicators Report, NISR, 2023 (type of habitat by province and district, number of private households); Statistical Yearbook 2019, NISR (number of villages); Rwanda State of Environment and Outlook Report, REMA, 2009 (resettlement in the east); Imidugudu, Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted by Ganzaa (date of the policy).

Figures 1 and 2 and the worked examples were drawn and written by Ganzaa.

Photos: VillageRwanda, Jake73, public domain; DSC 1180 (2043983790), Joachim Huber, CC BY-SA 2.0; via Wikimedia Commons.

Video: "Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods [AP Human Geography Unit 5 Topic 2]", Mr. Sinn, embedded from YouTube. The rest of the lesson and the exercises were written by Ganzaa.

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1Two households in three live in an umudugudu

2Types of rural settlement in Rwanda

3Characteristics of rural settlements

4Factors influencing rural settlement

Two households in three live in an umudugudu

Types of rural settlement in Rwanda

Characteristics of rural settlements

Factors influencing rural settlement