In the past and currently, land scarcity and population growth have been the subject of extensive debate in the development of Rwanda. Rwanda has been well known for having the highest population density in Africa, with at the same time scarce natural resources, primarily land. This paper draws from the views of earlier scholars and development officials to inform the other side of the “coin” which needs just as much attention for the future development of Rwanda - people’s livelihoods can and must be created outside agriculture. Results from our review of earlier research substantiate that linkages between population and land scarcity have been addressed in an isolated way rather than integrating them in the overall transformation of the Rwandan economy. Most importantly, little attention has been paid to how services and manufacturing can increase employment. Population projections made in this article maintain that population will continue to grow at a flat rate, despite the efforts being made in the family planning process. The total population is expected to be 22.1 million in 2050 with an assumed population growth rate of nearly 2%. To improve land and population relationships, the non-farm sector will have to employ about 84.7% of the working population against 15.3 % of the working population that will be employed by the farm sector during the above period. One of the avenues to address the “population growth and land scarcity stress” is to continue develop the non-farm sector, to enable it to uptake new entrants in the labour market. With the current pace of development, if this is maintained or improved, more job opportunities will continue to arise from the non-farm sector and will start dominating the employment market by 2025. To enable this, the rural non-farm sector needs to be addressed in more policy and development interventions.