Malawi profile

Map source: OCHA/ReliefWeb

 

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. 

Separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi, it has an estimated population of 15.3 million people. 

Malawi’s capital is Lilongwe, the second largest city is Blantyre. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name for the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. 

Most Malawians rely on subsistence farming, but food supply is precarious and the country is prone to natural disasters of both extremes - drought and heavy rainfalls - putting it in constant need of thousands of tonnes of food aid every year.

 

Malawi’s single major natural resource, agricultural land, is under severe pressure from rapid population growth. Tens of thousands of Malawians die of Aids annually.

With one of the highest adult prevalence rates in the world, the epidemic has exacerbated social problems as diverse as food security and human resource capacity. After years of silence, the authorities finally spoke out about the crisis. A programme to tackle HIV and Aids was launched in 2004, with President Muluzi revealing that his brother had died from the disease.

For three decades Malawi’s destiny had been tied to the whims of its totalitarian president-for-life, Kamuzu Banda, who encouraged people to betray relatives who criticised his rule.

In the mid-1990s he buckled under popular pressure to hold elections, and lost - finally giving Malawians a taste of multi-party democracy.

For information about GOAL's work in Malawi, click here.

Malawi - Fact Box

Average life expectancy: 51.3 years (males), 53.4 years (females)

Infant mortality: 65 per 1,000 live births (World Bank, 2009)

Children under five underweight for their age: 19 per cent

Probability at birth of not surviving to age of 40: 32.6 per cent

Population not using an improved water source: 24 per cent

People living below poverty line of US$2 a day: 90.4 per cent

Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: US$280 (World Bank, 2009)

Malawi ranked 160th out of 182 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index (2009)

Unless otherwise stated, all statistics in the Fact Box have been sourced form the United Nations' Development Report 2009.