Its ecclesiastic territory includes the capital city of Kinshasa and surrounding districts.

Established as the Apostolic Vicariate of the Belgian Congo by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, it was raised to the status of an archdiocese in 1959.

Today, the archdiocese covers a territory of 8,500 km2 (3,283 sq mi) and, as of 2016, has a total population of 11,323,000, of whom 6,378,000 (56.3%) are Catholic.

[2] The archdiocese was established on 22 November 1886, as the Mission sui iuris of the Belgian Congo, from territory taken from both the Apostolic Prefecture of Lower Congo (in Cubango, Angola) and the Apostolic Vicariate of Two Guineas (in Gabon).

It was elevated on 10 November 1959 as the Archdiocese of Léopoldville, when the city was soon to become the national capital of the newly independent Republic of the Congo.