Kinshasa (/kɪnˈʃɑːsə/; French: [kinʃasa]; Lingala: Kinsásá), previously known as Léopoldville before June 30, 1966, is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Kinshasa, formerly a fishing and trading village along the Congo River, has become one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities.
With an estimated population of 16 million, it is the most densely inhabited metropolis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Africa’s most populous city.
It is Africa’s third-largest urban region and the DRC’s primary economic, political, and cultural hub.
Kinshasa has various businesses, including manufacturing, telecommunications, banking, and entertainment.
| Population (2021) | |
|---|---|
| • City-province | 17,071,000 |
| • Density | 1,462/km2 (3,790/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 16,316,000 |
| • Urban density | 27,000/km2 (70,000/sq mi) |
| • Metro | 17,239,463 |
| • Language | French and Lingala |
Kinshasa is a city (ville in French) and one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 26 provinces. Nonetheless, it has city subdivisions and is organized into 24 communes (municipalities), which are further divided into 369 quarters and 21 embedding groups.
Maluku, the rural commune to the east of the metropolitan region, accounting for 79% of the city-province’s total land area of 9.965 km2 (3.848 sq mi), and has a population of 200,000-300,000.
The communes are divided into four districts, which are not themselves administrative entities.
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