Africa
To which language should you translate to localize in Rwanda?
What the 150 top websites do
Of the top 150 website (Global by design ranking):
- 33/150 translate into English.
- 6/150 translate into French.
- 1/150 translates into the Rwandan Sign Language.
If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data
Overview
Language
Official language
Kinyarwanda 93.2%, French (0.1%), English (0.2%) and Swahili/Kiswahili (0.1%).
T-index
0.01%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
English
Very low proficiency (EF) – 109 of 113 countries/regions in the world- 21/23 position in Africa.
Demography
Capital: Kigali
Currency: Rwandan franc
Population: 13.77 mln
Population density: 546/km2
Economy
GDP: 13.31 billion USD (2022)
GDP per capita: 966.2 USD (2022)
Exports: $1.77 billion (2022)
Statistics
Internet users: 30.5% penetration, 4.25 million
Unemployment rate: 15.1% (2022)
Urbanisation: 18% (2022)
Literacy: 76% (2021)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals with dot as decimal separator
Date format: dd – mm – yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00250
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$4.32 billion (2022). Refined Petroleum ($593M), Gold ($404M), Palm Oil ($124M), Rice ($112M), and Raw Sugar ($107M), importing mostly from China ($808M), Tanzania ($474M), Kenya ($439M), United Arab Emirates ($416M), and India ($309M).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 36.7% have an account with a financial institution
• 0.7% have a credit card
• 31.1% have a mobile money account
Ease of doing business
Easy to conduct business (rated 76.5 out of 100). Ranked 2nd out of 48 Sub-Saharan African countries. Ranked 38th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).
Exports
$1.77 billion (2022). Gold ($542M), Tin Ores ($124M), Coffee ($112M), Malt Extract ($86.9M), and Niobium, Tantalum, Vanadium and Zirconium Ore ($83.4M), exporting mostly to United Arab Emirates ($568M), Democratic Republic of the Congo ($450M), Thailand ($83.9M), United States ($61.7M), and Ethiopia ($55.2M).
In 2022, Rwanda was the world’s biggest exporter of Tungsten Ore ($52.7M).
Economic freedom
‘Mostly not free’ (rated 51.6 out of 100). Ranked 30th out of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries. Ranked 135th out of 184 countries worldwide (2024, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 9th out of 28 Sub-Saharan African countries, and 103rd out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2015)
Service Exports
Source: OEC
Trade balance of goods from 2012 to 2022
Source: Statista
Historical Data Trade Imports
The following section uses historical trade data imports from partners of Rwanda.
Historical Data Trade Exports
The following section uses historical trade data exports from partners of Rwanda.
Source: OEC
The Top Export Opportunities for Rwanda by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product by showing only products that Rwanda is not specialized in.
Rwanda's Most Complex Exports
The Product Complexity Index (PCI) measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters.
Source: OEC
Payment methods accepted by digital platform in Rwanda as of 2018
Rwanda's Most Specialized Products
Specialization is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), an index that takes the ratio between Rwanda observed and expected exports in each product.
Source: OEC
Market Growth Imports (2015)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start importing that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Market Growth Exports (2015)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start exporting that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Source: OEC
Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)
Source: WorldBank
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language English, French, Kinyarwanda and Swahili.
Information channels
State TV and radio reach the largest audiences. By 2019, there were 34 radio stations, 14 TV stations, 46 newspapers and 88 news websites, according to the media regulator. Censorship is ubiquitous and self-censorship is commonplace, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its 2019 press freedom index. Freedom House said defamation was decriminalised in 2018 but that a revised law has criminalised written content and cartoons that “humiliate” Rwandan leaders. The BBC can be heard on FM in Kigali (93.9), Karongi (93.3) and Butare (106.1). The Voice of America and Deutsche Welle broadcast on FM in Kigali. By late 2018 3.7 million Rwandans were online, comprising around 29% of the population (InternetWorldStats.com). There are around 620,000 social media users (We Are Social, January 2019). Facebook is the leading social media platform. The government has increasingly blocked access to news websites based abroad, says Freedom House. It says this is partly because many journalists have fled the country and now work in exile and online.
The press
The New Times – private, pro-government, English-language
IGIHE – news website
Umuseke – news website
Television
RTV – operated by state-owned Rwanda Broadcasting Agency
Tele10 – privately-owned
Radio
Radio Rwanda – state-owned, broadcasts in English, French, Kinyarwanda and Swahili
Radio 10 – private
Flash FM – private
Contact FM – private
City Radio – private
Radio Izuba – private
Radio Maria – Catholic
News agency
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
30.5% penetration, 4.25 million
Share of web traffic by device
52.41% mobile phones, 46.68% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.92% tablet devices.
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
10.15 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 75.9%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 59.8%
Most popular web search engines
Google (93.99%), Bing (5.25%), Yahoo! (0.52%), DuckduckGo (0.1%), Ecosia (0.03%), other (0.01%).
Most used social media
Facebook (44.5%), Twitter (23.85%), Pinterest (13.67%), Instagram (10.65%), YouTube (5.06%), LinkedIn (1.46%), Reddit (0.46%), other (0.35%).
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
66 yrs (2021)
Gender
Men continue to hold most of the higher-level positions in organisations, although more and more women are being promoted. Society is generally stricter with women’s deviant behaviour than with men’s.
Corruption perceptions Index
Rwanda scored 51 out of 100, ranked 54 out of 180 countries worldwide.
Current health expenditure
7.32% of GDP
CO2 emissions
0.1 metric tons per capita
Current education expenditure
63% of total expenditure in public institutions
Religion
Most Rwandans have a religious faith, but religion does not interfere with professional life (although there are a few exceptions). Most people are Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Adventist) and others are Muslim (particularly city-dwellers).
Class
Social classes, as we traditionally think of them, do not exist. However, it may be said that economic standing may define class: people acquire a certain status from their wealth.
Ethnicity
A taboo subject. People only discuss their ethnic origin with people they know very well and do not feel comfortable discussing it with a “stranger”.
World Happiness Index
Rwanda ranked 143 out of 146 countries, with a score of 3.268.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Languages spoken in Rwanda
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Kageni Joe, iStock