Demographics of Malawi

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Malawi, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Malawi derives its name from the Maravi, a Bantu people who came from the southern Congo about 600 years ago. On reaching the area north of Lake Malawi, the Maravi divided. One branch, the ancestors of the present-day Chewas, moved south to the west bank of the lake. The other, the ancestors of the Nyanjas, moved down the east bank to the southern part of the country.

By AD 1500, the two divisions of the tribe had established a kingdom stretching from north of the present-day city of Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River in the south, and from Lake Malawi in the east, to the Luangwa River in Zambia in the west.

Migrations and tribal conflicts precluded the formation of a cohesive Malawian society until the turn of the 20th century. In more recent years, ethnic and tribal distinctions have diminished. Regional distinctions and rivalries, however, persist. Despite some clear differences, no significant friction currently exists between tribal groups, and the concept of a Malawian nationality has begun to take hold. Predominantly a rural people, Malawians are generally conservative and traditionally nonviolent.

The Chewas constitute 90% of the population of the central region; the Nyanja tribe predominates in the south and the Tumbuka in the north. In addition, significant numbers of the Tongas live in the north; Ngonis—an offshoot of the Zulus who came from South Africa in the early 19th century—live in the lower northern and lower central regions; and the Yao, who are mostly Muslim, predominate in the Southern Region of the country and live in a wide band from Blantyre and Zomba north to Lake Malawi and east to the border with Mozambique. Bantus of other tribes came from Mozambique as refugees.

Population

Demographics of Malawi, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

According to the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects[1][2] the total population was 18,143,217 in 2018, compared to only 2 881 000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 45.8%, 51.1% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.1% was 65 years or older.[3]

	Total population (x 1000)	Population aged 0–14 (%)	Population aged 15–64 (%)	Population aged 65+ (%)
1950	2 881	45.7	51.2	3.1
1955	3 166	45.7	51.5	2.8
1960	3 525	45.9	51.6	2.6
1965	3 975	45.3	52.3	2.4
1970	4 531	46.3	51.4	2.3
1975	5 302	46.9	50.6	2.5
1980	6 240	47.1	50.3	2.6
1985	7 268	47.5	50.0	2.5
1990	9 381	45.9	51.4	2.7
1995	9 883	44.7	52.2	3.1
2000	11 229	45.8	51.1	3.1
2005	12 823	46.1	50.9	3.1
2010	14 901	45.8	51.1	3.1

Total and Percent Distribution of Population by Single Year of Age (Census 09.03.2018)

[4]

Age	Population	Percent
Total	17,563,749	100
0-4	2,552,406	14.53
0	522,802	2.98
1	509,351	2.90
2	490,811	2.79
3	511,365	2.91
4	518,077	2.95
5-9	2,632,878	14.99
5	529,111	3.01
6	546,708	3.11
7	526,347	3.00
8	532,846	3.03
9	497,866	2.83
10-14	2,533,303	14.42
10	539,264	3.07
11	489,887	2.79
12	517,832	2.95
13	492,122	2.80
14	494,198	2.81
15-19	2,035,945	11.59
15	452,017	2.57
16	339,248	1.93
17	384,682	2.19
18	497,831	2.83
19	362,167	2.06
20-24	1,651,576	9.40
20	357,667	2.04
21	323,511	1.84
22	304,519	1.73
23	330,222	1.88
24	335,657	1.91
25-29	1,229,411	7.00
25	291,198	1.66
26	274,739	1.56
27	213,337	1.21
28	238,630	1.36
29	211,507	1.20
30-34	1,107,226	6.30
30	243,969	1.39
31	209,155	1.19
32	226,360	1.29
33	218,620	1.24
34	209,122	1.19
35-39	968,998	5.52
35	221,078	1.26
36	207,499	1.18
37	165,564	0.94
38	210,252	1.20
39	164,605	0.94
40-44	729,600	4.15
40	168,637	0.96
41	137,967	0.79
42	147,438	0.84
43	151,363	0.86
44	124,195	0.71
45-49	535,868	3.05
45	129,172	0.74
46	121,996	0.69
47	89,576	0.51
48	112,116	0.64
49	83,008	0.47
50-54	387,812	2.21
50	99,632	0.57
51	57,309	0.33
52	63,690	0.36
53	72,671	0.41
54	94,510	0.54
55-59	306,921	1.75
55	69,274	0.39
56	63,914	0.36
57	50,534	0.29
58	75,091	0.43
59	48,108	0.27
60-64	234,918	1.34
60	69,006	0.39
61	38,753	0.22
62	44,264	0.25
63	40,119	0.23
64	42,776	0.24
65-69	240,551	1.37
65	47,861	0.27
66	50,078	0.29
67	35,456	0.20
68	59,659	0.34
69	47,497	0.27
70-74	144,788	0.82
70	39,380	0.22
71	27,618	0.16
72	26,622	0.15
73	31,656	0.18
74	19,512	0.11
75-79	124,718	0.71
75	25,635	0.15
76	28,492	0.16
77	19,096	0.11
78	35,174	0.20
79	16,321	0.09
80-84	63,675	0.36
80	16,846	0.10
81	9,987	0.06
82	12,908	0.07
83	14,208	0.08
84	9,726	0.06
85-89	54,754	0.31
85	12,054	0.07
86	14,628	0.08
87	8,331	0.05
88	15,327	0.09
89	4,414	0.03
90-94	15,130	0.09
90	5,041	0.03
91	2,466	0.01
92	2,746	0.02
93	2,897	0.02
94	1,980	0.01
95+	13,271	0.08

Age group	Population	Percent
0-14	7,718,587	43.95
15-64	9,188,275	52.31
65+	656,887	3.74

TFR - 4.17

Structure of the population (DHS 2010) (Males 55 159, Females 58 414 = 113 574) :

Age Group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0-4	17,3	17,0	17,2
5-9	17,4	16,8	17,1
10-14	15,1	14,3	14,7
15-19	10,6	9,0	9,8
20-24	7,6	8,1	7,8
25-29	6,8	7,7	7,3
30-34	5,7	5,8	5,8
35-39	4,8	4,4	4,6
40-44	3,1	3,1	3,1
45-49	2,6	2,7	2,7
50-54	2,2	2,7	2,5
55-59	1,8	2,1	1,9
60-64	1,7	1,9	1,8
65-69	1,1	1,4	1,2
70-74	0,8	1,1	1,0
75-79	0,6	0,9	0,8
80+	0,6	1,0	0,8

Age group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0-14	49,8	48,1	49,0
15-64	47,1	47,5	47,2
65+	3,1	4,4	3,8

Structure of the population (DHS 2014) (Males 6 855, Females 7 125 = 13 979) :

Age Group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0-4	16,8	16,4	16,6
5-9	16,1	16,3	16,2
10-14	15,7	16,0	15,9
15-19	8,5	6,9	7,7
20-24	7,2	8,5	7,8
25-29	6,1	7,3	6,7
30-34	6,4	6,9	6,7
35-39	5,3	5,0	5,2
40-44	3,8	3,3	3,5
45-49	3,2	1,9	2,5
50-54	2,6	3,7	3,1
55-59	1,5	1,9	1,7
60-64	1,3	1,8	1,5
65-69	1,0	1,2	1,1
70-74	0,9	0,8	0,8
75-79	0,7	0,8	0,7
80+	0,7	0,9	0,8

Age group	Male (%)	Female (%)	Total (%)
0-14	48,6	48,7	48,7
15-64	48,1	47,6	47,9
65+	3,3	3,7	3,4

UN population projections

Numbers are in thousands. UN medium variant projections [3]

• 2015 17,522
• 2020 20,677
• 2025 24,212
• 2030 28,173
• 2035 32,667
• 2040 37,797
• 2045 43,521
• 2050 49,719

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events is in Malawi not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. [3]

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR*	CDR*	NC*	TFR*	IMR*
1950-1955	144 000	85 000	59 000	47.5	28.0	19.5	6.78	198
1955-1960	162 000	89 000	72 000	48.3	26.7	21.7	6.84	192
1960-1965	187 000	97 000	91 000	49.9	25.7	24.1	7.00	186
1965-1970	219 000	107 000	113 000	51.5	25.1	26.5	7.20	180
1970-1975	257 000	115 000	142 000	52.3	23.4	28.9	7.40	168
1975-1980	314 000	130 000	183 000	54.3	22.6	31.8	7.50	159
1980-1985	351 000	139 000	212 000	51.9	20.6	31.3	7.30	151
1985-1990	410 000	157 000	253 000	49.3	18.8	30.4	7.00	143
1990-1995	453 000	173 000	280 000	47.0	17.9	29.1	6.50	133
1995-2000	479 000	189 000	290 000	45.4	17.9	27.5	6.20	121
2000-2005	522 000	199 000	323 000	43.4	16.6	26.8	6.03	107
2005-2010	610 000	190 000	420 000	44.0	13.7	30.3	6.00	95
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

Births and deaths [5]

Year	Population	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2008*	13 077 160	516 629	135 865	380 764	37,9	10,0	27,9	5,2

• Data refer to the 12 months preceding the census in June

Fertility and births

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):[6][7]

Year	CBR (Total)	TFR (Total)	CBR (Urban)	TFR (Urban)	CBR (Rural)	TFR (Rural)
1984	52	7.58
1992	42.9	6.73 (5.74)	40.5	5.51 (4.38)	43.2	6.88 (5.92)
2000	45.5	6.3 (5.2)	40.8	4.5 (3.5)	46.2	6.7 (5.5)
2004	42.4	6.0 (4.9)	37.0	4.2 (3.3)	43.4	6.4 (5.2)
2010	39.2	5.7 (4.5)	36.0	4.0 (3.3)	39.8	6.1 (4.8)
2015-16	32.2	4.4 (3.4)	29.5	3.0 (2.5)	32.6	4.7 (3.6)
2017	32.1	4.2	27.4	2.8	33.0	4.5

Fertility data as of 2016 (DHS Program):[8]

Region	Total fertility rate	Percentage of women age 15-49 currently pregnant	Mean number of children ever born to women age 40-49
Northern	4.2	8.1	5.7
Central	4.4	7.8	6.2
Southern	4.6	7.3	5.7
Total	4.4	7.6	5.9

Life expectancy birth

Period	Life expectancy in Years[9]
1950–1955	36.26
1955–1960	37.21
1960–1965	38.42
1965–1970	39.50
1970–1975	41.76
1975–1980	43.78
1980–1985	45.57
1985–1990	46.31
1990–1995	46.67
1995–2000	46.56
2000–2005	47.30
2005–2010	53.38
2010–2015	60.71

Other demographic statistics

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.[10]

• One birth every 45 seconds
• One death every 4 minutes
• One net migrant every 44 minutes
• Net gain of one person every 57 seconds

The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook[11] unless otherwise indicated.

Population

19,842,560 (July 2018 est.)

19,196,246 (July 2017 est.)

Age structure

Population pyramid of Malawi in 2017

0-14 years: 46.17% (male 4,560,940 /female 4,600,184)

15-24 years: 20.58% (male 2,023,182 /female 2,059,765)

25-54 years: 27.57% (male 2,717,613 /female 2,752,983)

55-64 years: 3% (male 284,187 /female 310,393)

65 years and over: 2.69% (male 234,776 /female 298,537) (2018 est.)

Median age

total: 16.6 years. Country comparison to the world: 223th

male: 16.5 years

female: 16.8 years (2018 est.)

Birth rate

40.7 births/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 8th

41 births/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Death rate

7.7 deaths/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 100th

7.9 deaths/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Total fertility rate

4 children born/woman (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 9th

Population growth rate

3.31% (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 3rd

3.31% (2017 est.)

Mother's mean age at first birth

18.9 years (2015/16 est.)

note: median age at first birth among women 25-29

Contraceptive prevalence rate

59.2% (2015/16)

Net migration rate

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2017 est.) Country comparison to the world: 91st

0 migrants/1,000 population (2017). There is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities.

Religions[12]

Protestant 27.2% (includes Church of Central Africa Presbyterian 17.7%, Seventh Day Adventist/Baptist 6.9%, Anglican 2.6%), Catholic 18.4%, other Christian 41%, Muslim 12.1%, other 0.3%, none 1% (2015-16 est.)

• Christian: 86.9%
• Islam: 12.5%
• Other: 0.1%
• None: 0.5%

Dependency ratios

total dependency ratio: 91 (2015 est.)

youth dependency ratio: 85.3 (2015 est.)

elderly dependency ratio: 5.7 (2015 est.)

potential support ratio: 17.4 (2015 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 16.9% of total population (2018)

rate of urbanization: 4.19% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 62.2 years (2018 est.)

male: 60.2 years (2018 est.)

female: 64.3 years (2018 est.)

total population: 61.7 years

male: 59.7 years

female: 63.8 years (2017 est.)

Sex ratio

• at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
• under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
• 15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
• 65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
• total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Ratio of medical doctors to general population

1 Doctor/65,000 Malawians [13]

Nationality

• noun: Malawian(s)
• adjective: Malawian

Ethnic groups

[12]

• Chewa 34.3%
• Lomwe 18.8%
• Yao 13.2%
• Ngoni 10.4%
• Tumbuka 9.2%
• Sena 3.8%
• Mang'anja 3.2%
• Tonga 1.8%
• Nyanja 1.8%
• Nyakyusa 1%
• Europeans 0.04%
• Other 2.5%

Languages[12]

Proportion of language speakers in Malawi

  Chewa (49.9%)

  Lomwe (17.6%)

  Yao (13.5%)

  Tumbuka (9.1%)

  Sena (3.6%)

  Tonga (2.1%)

  Makhuwa (1.5%)

  Nyakyusa (1.1%)

  Other (1.6%)

• English (official)
• Chichewa (official) - 6,500,000
• Chiyao - 1,760,000
• Chitumbuka - 1,180,000
• Chilomwe - 2,290,000
• Chingoni - 37,500
• Chimakhuwa - 200,000
• Chisena - 468,000
• Chitonga - 271,000
• Chinyika - 5,000
• Chinyiha - 10,000
• Chindali - 70,000
• Chinyakyusa - 149,000
• Chilambya - 59,500
• Afrikaans - 26,000

Literacy

Further information: Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 62.1%

male: 69.8%

female: 55.2% (2015 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 11 years (2011)

male: 11 years (2011)

female: 11 years (2011)

Unemployment, youth ages 15-24

total: 8% (2013 est.)

male: 7.4% (2013 est.)

female: 8.5% (2013 est.)

White Malawians

There has been reported a 7,400 white population. White Malawians are descended from English, Scottish, Dutch, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Middle Eastern, Belgian, Scandinavian, or Germans. White Malawians live in Lilongwe, Dedza, Dowa, Blantyre, Kasungu, Mchinji, Nkhotakota, Ntcheu, Ntchisi, Salima, Chitipa, Karonga, Likoma, Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Rumphi, Balaka, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Machinga, Magochi, Mulanje, Mwanza, Nsanje, Thyolo, Phalombe, Zomba, and Mzuzu.

See also

• Malawi
• Malawian American

References

1. ""World Population prospects – Population division"". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
2. ""Overall total population" – World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision" (xslx). population.un.org (custom data acquired via website). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
3. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision Archived May 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
4. "2018 Population and Housing Census Main Report" (PDF). Malawi National Statistical Office. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
5. "3. Live births, deaths, and infant deaths, latest available year (2002 - 2016)" (PDF). Unstats.un.org. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
6. "MEASURE DHS: Demographic and Health Surveys". Microdata.worldbank.org. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
7. "STATcompiler". www.statcompiler.com. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
8. "Malawi Demographic and Demographic and Health Survey : Health Survey 2015-16" (PDF). Dhsprogram.com. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
9. "World Population Prospects - Population Division - United Nations". esa.un.org. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
10. "Malawi Population 2019", World Population Review
11. "The World FactBook - Malawi", The World Factbook, July 12, 2018 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
12. "Africa :: MALI". CIA The World Factbook. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
13. von Bothmer, Eleanore (2009). "Global lack of medical doctors". Development and Cooperation. Frankfurt am Main: Societäts-Verlag. 36 (3): 94. Archived from the original on 2009-07-26.