Malawi: The Warm Heart of Africa

Malawi is located in southern Africa bordered by Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique.  It is landlocked; Lake Nyasa, (Lake Malawi) some 580 km long, is the country's most prominent physical feature. Lake Malawi is world famous for cichlids - a species of freshwater fish this can be seen on the BBC series Planet Earth.

Malawi ranks among the world's most densely populated and least developed countries. The economy is predominately agricultural, with about 85% of the population living in rural areas.

The government is a multiparty democracy.





  • Malawi is the 7th poorest country in the world.

  • It has a population of approximately 12,5 million; of those 750,000 are orphans, a figure increasing by 65,000 a year.

  • Over 200 people die of AIDS each day.

  • Life expectancy in 1997 was 41; now it is 36.

  • 48% of children in Malawi are chronically malnourished.

  • In the last decade maternal deaths in childbirth have increased by 100%. This figure is the third highest in the world, behind Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

  • One in four children die before the age of five.

  • 7% of the population have electricity.

  • 42% of the population are illiterate.

  • 3.4% of the population complete secondary education.

  • 1% of the population go to University.

  • Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.

  • The Malawian currency is the Kwacha

  • Main exports: Coffee, tea, tobacco & sugar

  • Languages spoken: Chichewa, Tambuka, and English

  • Religions: Christian 79.9%, Muslim 12.8%, other 3%, none 4.3% (1998 census)