1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Rwanda
Compare this sourced profile of Kigali, Rwanda before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Kigali—1,132,686, Africa/Kigali, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: province-level city, capital and largest city of Rwanda.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Kigali is GeoNames ID 202061. Its recorded administrative path is Nyarugenge District → Kigali → Rwanda, and GeoNames classifies the place as a capital of a political entity. Kigali occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2021-11-09; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Kigali ranks 477 by recorded population. Inside the 1 selected Rwanda entries it ranks 1; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 97. Its 1,132,686 population value is 1.00 times the 1,132,686 median for the country cohort and 1.25 times the 902,588 regional median. Kigali is rank 1 among the 1 selected Rwanda entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Kigali's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Kigali's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Bukavu at 147.894 km with 816,811 recorded people; Bujumbura at 177.072 km with 769,317 recorded people; Mwanza at 321.908 km with 1,104,521 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 174.014 km. Compared with Bukavu, Kigali's recorded population is 1.39 times as large. Against Kigali, Bukavu follows Bukavu → South Kivu → Congo - Kinshasa in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Congo - Kinshasa cohort rather than Rwanda, uses Africa/Lubumbashi instead of Africa/Kigali, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Kigali's. Against Kigali, Bujumbura follows Mukaza → Bujumbura Mairie → Burundi in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Burundi cohort rather than Rwanda, uses Africa/Bujumbura instead of Africa/Kigali, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Kigali's. Against Kigali, Mwanza follows Nyamagana District → Mwanza → Tanzania in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Tanzania cohort rather than Rwanda, uses Africa/Dar_es_Salaam instead of Africa/Kigali, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Kigali's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 870 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Kigali's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 202061, the coordinate pair 1.9500 / 30.0589, country rank 1 of 1, and neighbor GeoNames 217831 at 147.894 km bind Kigali to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Kigali's reference point is 1.9500° south and 30.0589° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Kigali is shared by 1 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLC is shared by 129 rows. Kigali's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Kigali's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Kigali's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Kigali, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Kigali's closest other entries in this atlas are Bukavu (147.894 km), Bujumbura (177.072 km), Mwanza (321.908 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Kigali, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2021-11-09; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.