Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda
Senior 2 · Geography and Environment
Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda
Lesson 3 of 4
18 min
Kigali's skyline changes every year, and towns such as Musanze, Rubavu and Huye are growing fast. Each town grew for a reason: a border crossing, a university, a lake, a mountain park, a road junction. What a town does is called its function, and knowing a town's function helps explain its size and its future.
The 2022 census counted 3,701,245 urban residents out of 13,246,394 people.
Kigali is Rwanda's primate city. To spread growth more evenly, the government has named six secondary cities as growth poles: Huye, Muhanga, Musanze, Nyagatare, Rubavu and Rusizi.
| Town | Main functions |
|---|---|
| Kigali | Capital and seat of government; headquarters of banks and firms; industry (Special Economic Zone); main transport hub with the international airport; universities and referral hospitals; conferences and tourism |
| Huye | Education (a major University of Rwanda campus); culture (the Ethnographic Museum); regional trade in the south |
| Muhanga | A central road junction between Kigali and the south and west; trade and services |
| Musanze | Tourism gateway to Volcanoes National Park; market for potatoes and other highland produce |
| Rubavu | Border trade with Goma (DR Congo); lake tourism on Kivu; brewing and other industry |
| Rusizi | Border trade with Bukavu (DR Congo); cement making at Bugarama; gateway to Nyungwe |
| Nyagatare | Service centre for the east's dairy, livestock and crop farming; border trade with Uganda; higher education |
| Other towns | Nyanza (royal history museums), Karongi (lake tourism, methane power), Rwamagana (administrative centre of the Eastern Province) |
Tip
Memory hook. Link each town to one word: Kigali, capital; Huye, university; Muhanga, junction; Musanze, gorillas; Rubavu, Goma border; Rusizi, cement; Nyagatare, milk. Then build the fuller answer around that word.
Solution: the growth in the share of the population living in towns.
Solution: Huye, Muhanga, Musanze, Nyagatare, Rubavu and Rusizi.
Solution: border trade with Goma and tourism on Lake Kivu (also industry).
Solution: it is far larger and more important than any other town, holding about 41% of Rwanda's urban residents.
Solution: 90,000 ÷ 450,000 × 100 = 20%.
Summary
Sources and credits
The worked example, the table of functions and the practice items are written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
