Malawi β Country Profile & National Debt
An overview of Malawi covering geography, demographics, economy, culture, political status, and practical information, sourced from World Bank and REST Countries open data.
These figures are estimates based on public statistics and may differ from actual values.
About Malawi
The capital of Malawi is Lilongwe. It has a population of approximately 21.7M. The country covers an area of 118,484 kmΒ². It is located in Eastern Africa.
Geography
Malawi is a country in Eastern Africa, part of the Africa region. It covers an area of approximately 118,484 kmΒ². It shares land borders with Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia, totalling 3 neighbours. It is a landlocked country with no direct sea access.
Demographics & Languages
Malawi has a population of approximately 21,655,286 people. Population density is around 182.8 people per kmΒ². Its officially recognised languages include English and Chewa, totalling 2 languages. People from this country are referred to as Malawian.
Economy Overview
As of 2025, Malawi reports a nominal GDP of about $14.9 billion. Government debt stood at roughly 61.8% of GDP in 2023. The official currency is the Malawian kwacha (MWK, symbol MK). The current exchange rate is approximately 1 USD = 1,745.22 MWK.
Culture & Time
Malawi operates on a single time zone (Africa/Blantyre). Its country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is.mw.
Government & Status
The capital of Malawi is Lilongwe. It is internationally recognised as an independent sovereign state. The country is a member state of the United Nations.
Practical Information
Traffic drives on the left. The international dialling code is +265. Its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is MW.
Data Sources & Methodology
GDP and debt-to-GDP figures on this page are pulled from the most recent available year of World Bank open statistics. The real-time debt estimate is computed by multiplying total debt (GDP Γ debt ratio) by World Bank's real interest rate (or a 4% fallback when unavailable) and dividing across each second of a year. Exchange rates refresh hourly via open.er-api.com, and country-level metadata such as languages, time zones, borders, and domains is fetched from REST Countries every 24 hours. All values are estimates derived from public datasets and may differ from official figures.