Quality of life comparison

compared to

If you lived in Rwanda instead of Cook Islands, you would:

Health

be 92.3% less likely to be obese

In Cook Islands, 72.4% of adults are obese as of 2024. In Rwanda, that number is 5.6% of people as of 2024.

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live 9.1 years less

In Cook Islands, the average life expectancy is 77 years (74 years for men, 80 years for women) as of 2022. In Rwanda, that number is 68 years (66 years for men, 70 years for women) as of 2024.

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have 93.3% fewer doctors per person

Cook Islands has 13.4 doctors per 10,000 people as of 2019. Rwanda has 0.9 as of 2022.

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Life

have 2.3 times more children

In Cook Islands, there are approximately 12.1 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024. In Rwanda, there are 28.1 babies per 1,000 people as of 2024.

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be 84.6% more likely to die during infancy

In Cook Islands, approximately 15.9 children (per 1,000 live births) die before they reach the age of one as of 2022. In Rwanda, on the other hand, 29.4 children do as of 2024.

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Basic Needs

be 51.1% less likely to have internet access

In Cook Islands, approximately 64.8% of the population has internet access as of 2021. In Rwanda, about 31.7% do as of 2024.

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Expenditures

spend 60.3% more on healthcare

Cook Islands spends 3.2% of its total GDP on healthcare as of 2020. In Rwanda, that number is 5.1% of GDP as of 2023.

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Safety

be 34.1% less likely to die in a road accident

In Cook Islands, road accidents kill 17.6 people per 100,000 as of 2021. In Rwanda, they kill 11.6 per 100,000 as of 2021.

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Infrastructure

find 96.7% less home broadband

Cook Islands has 18.2 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people as of 2022. Rwanda has 0.6 as of 2024.

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Sources: World Bank (2022–2024), The World Factbook (2020–2024), United Nations SDG Indicators (2019–2022), World Health Organization (2024). How we calculate this

Compare further: Cook Islands vs. Rwanda

Cost of Living Comparison · 5 categories - 2026 data
Rwanda is 29.6% cheaper than Cook Islands overall
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Size Comparison · See true size
Cook Islands is about 112 times smaller than Rwanda.
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Moving from Cook Islands to Rwanda · Cost, visas & climate
Compare cost of living, salary and climate.
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Rwanda: At a glance

Rwanda is a sovereign country in Africa, with a total land area of approximately 24,668 sq km. In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in a state-orchestrated genocide, in which Rwandans killed up to a million of their fellow citizens, including approximately three-quarters of the Tutsi population. The genocide ended later that same year when the predominantly Tutsi RPF, operating out of Uganda and northern Rwanda, defeated the national army and Hutu militias, and established an RPF-led government of national unity. Approximately 2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but several thousand remained in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, the former Zaire) and formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF did in 1990. Rwanda held its first local elections in 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in 2003. Rwanda in 2009 staged a joint military operation with the Congolese Army in DRC to rout out the Hutu extremist insurgency there, and Kigali and Kinshasa restored diplomatic relations. Rwanda also joined the Commonwealth in late 2009. In January 2013, Rwanda assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term.
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How big is Rwanda compared to Cook Islands? See an in-depth size comparison.

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