Malawi

AfricaCapital city: LilongweCapital metro: LilongweMost important metro: BlantyrePresident: Peter Mutharika
2026 population
20.7M
Rank #63 globally
Area
118k km² (46k sq mi)
Metros tracked
3
35% of population in metros
Composite score
3.9
Rank #149 globally

population: Natl annual projection (1 Jul 2025) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 3 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography3 metros

Malawi metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
3 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 3 tracked metros
3 metros
#1068Lilongwe★ Capital▲ Largest
1.4
🗂️ Regions

3 entries listed under Malawi. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

3 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
English, Chewa, Tumbuka
Legislature
National Assembly
Demonym
Malawian
Time zone
UTC+02:00
Driving side
Left
Calling code
+265
Internet TLD
.mw
ISO 3166
MW
Established
1964
Highest point
Mulanje Massif (3,002 m (9,849 ft))
National anthem
Chiuta dangililani Malaŵi

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#170 / 191
0.517
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#146 / 193
$14.9B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#186 / 193
$672
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#184 / 190
$1.9k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#187 / 192
$600
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#149 / 194
67.6 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
17.6 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#191 / 194
18%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.6%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#46 / 193
224/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#156 / 193
0.9%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#88 / 175
0.57
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#109 / 166
38.5
World Bank · 2019
Internet users
#179 / 193
19%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#176 / 185
28.4%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#5 / 192
0.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#16 / 186
96%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations4 full memberships

Political & Economic

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History7 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Peter Mutharika✦ Current

2025Present

President

Tenure: 0y 8m

Lazarus Chakwera

20202025

President

Tenure: 5y 3m

Peter Mutharika

20142020

President

Tenure: 6y 0m

Joyce Banda

20122014

President

Tenure: 2y 1m

Bingu wa Mutharika

20042012

President

Tenure: 7y 10m

Bakili Muluzi

19942004

President

Tenure: 10y 0m

Hastings Banda

19661994

President

Tenure: 27y 10m
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#143 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Malawi · share of world power, 1964–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19451 interstate war · click to expand

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
21.1m
#62 in the world
Since 1800
29×
from 737k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.26%
0.07% in 1800
5.7m11.4m17.1m22.8m18001850190019502000
Malawi · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Malawi: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
37.4m
95% band 27.6m to 51.5m
2100
59.1m
95% band 23.3m to 149m
2100 against 2025
2.66×
median still rising in 2100
39.1m78.2m117m156m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
146k born · 95k died · 0 net migration
TFR 6.82 · life expectancy 32.7 · median age 16.1
1960
195k born · 109k died · 0 net migration
TFR 7.04 · life expectancy 35.0 · median age 17.1
1970
250k born · 133k died · -2k net migration
TFR 7.29 · life expectancy 36.6 · median age 16.9
1980
330k born · 137k died · +52k net migration
TFR 7.52 · life expectancy 44.3 · median age 16.2
1990
462k born · 212k died · +71k net migration
TFR 6.74 · life expectancy 43.6 · median age 16.2
2000
504k born · 204k died · -28k net migration
TFR 6.00 · life expectancy 46.2 · median age 15.7
2010
603k born · 159k died · -9k net migration
TFR 5.26 · life expectancy 57.8 · median age 15.7
2020
636k born · 121k died · -3k net migration
TFR 3.88 · life expectancy 65.2 · median age 16.9
Show all 16 decades
2030
727k born · 126k died · +5k net migration
TFR 3.23 · life expectancy 68.6 · median age 19.5
2040
772k born · 155k died · -8k net migration
TFR 2.82 · life expectancy 70.3 · median age 22.1
2050
801k born · 201k died · -674 net migration
TFR 2.54 · life expectancy 71.7 · median age 24.6
2060
825k born · 263k died · -565 net migration
TFR 2.36 · life expectancy 73.1 · median age 27.3
2070
825k born · 334k died · -8k net migration
TFR 2.22 · life expectancy 74.5 · median age 29.9
2080
815k born · 409k died · +12k net migration
TFR 2.10 · life expectancy 75.9 · median age 32.2
2090
799k born · 484k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.02 · life expectancy 77.3 · median age 34.4
2100
772k born · 547k died · +26k net migration
TFR 1.95 · life expectancy 78.6 · median age 36.5

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Malawi on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.