Skyline of Kinshasa

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Seal Nickname: Kin la belle (French: "Kin the beautiful"

Map of the Dem. Rep. of the Congo highlighting the city-province of Kinshasa Coordinates: 4°16'S 15°17'E? / ?-4.267, 15.283 Country

 Democratic Republic of the Congo Province Kinshasa Administrative HQ La Gombe Communes List Bandalungwa Barumbu Bumbu La Gombe Kalamu Kasa-Vubu Kimbanseke Kinsenso Kinshasa Kintambo Lemba Limete Lingwala Makala Maluku Masina Matete Mont Ngafula NDjili Ngaba Ngaliema Ngiri-Ngiri Nsele Selembao Government  - Governor Andr? Kimbuta Yango Area [1]  - City-province 9,965 km? (3,847.5 sq mi) Population (2004)[1]  - City-province 7,017,000  - Density 704/km? (1,823.4/sq mi)  - Metro 9 million Incl. Brazzaville  - Language Lingala Website: http://www.kinshasa.cd

The Boulevard du 30 Juin, in downtown Kinshasa. Kinshasa (formerly L?opoldville) is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is located on the Congo River. Once a site of fishing villages, Kinshasa is now a bustling city with a population of more than 7 million in 2004.[1] The city of Brazzaville (about 1.5 million inhabitants in 2007 with its suburbs),[2] capital of the Republic of Congo, lies just across the Congo River from Kinshasa. Together with Brazzaville, the combined connurbation of Kinshasa-Brazzaville has thus nearly 9 million inhabitants. Kinshasa ties with Johannesburg for the status of the second largest city in sub-Saharan Africa and the third largest in the whole continent after Lagos and Cairo, and it is the second largest francophone city in the world after Paris, although Montreal, Canada is still considered more "important" as a hub of the French language. If current demographic trends continue, Kinshasa will surpass Paris as the largest francophone city in the world by the end of the 2010s.[3] [4] However, it is to be noted that local African languages especially the Lingala are by far more spoken in the city than the French language.