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 2010 revison of the World Population Prospects the total population was 14 901 000 in 2010, 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.^[1]

	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 08.06.2008)

^[2]

Age	Population	Percent
Total	13.077.160	100
0-4	2.370.011	18,12
0	503.385
1	458.222
2	458.515
3	471.886
4	478.003
5-9	1.968.299	15,05
5	435.984
6	383.178
7	406.527
8	410.644
9	331.966
10-14	1.670.391	12,77
10	366.467
11	320.297
12	347.324
13	309.008
14	327.295
15-19	1.276.692	9,76
15	297.228
16	261.776
17	226.281
18	268.654
19	222.753
20-24	1.240.329	9,48
20	271.768
21	233.762
22	256.800
23	237.068
24	240.931
25-29	1.102.976	8,43
25	262.460
26	223.390
27	195.567
28	248.158
29	173.401
30-34	827.547	6,33
30	228.287
31	145.976
32	169.408
33	153.458
34	130.418
35-39	623.330	4,77
35	161.637
36	133.831
37	103.043
38	136.658
39	88.161
40-44	441.231	3,37
40	137.398
41	60.745
42	80.390
43	71.762
44	90.936
45-49	343.190	2,62
45	84.730
46	66.011
47	52.873
48	87.664
49	51.912
50-54	269.634	2,06
50	92.552
51	40.858
52	50.768
53	40.404
54	45.052
55-59	258.214	1,97
55	50.564
56	54.671
57	35.273
58	66.723
59	50.983
60-64	184.679	1,41
60	59.660
61	31.320
62	31.801
63	35.925
64	25.973
65-69	153.829	1,18
65	32.335
66	31.181
67	20.166
68	45.388
69	24.759
70-74	106.020	0,81
70	35.722
71	15.820
72	20.837
73	19.161
74	14.480
75-79	106.769	0,82
75	22.899
76	26.920
77	14.261
78	29.436
79	13.253
80-84	55.970	0,43
80	20.108
81	9.644
82	10.823
83	8.105
84	7.290
85-89	40.784	0,31
85	7.092
86	11.706
87	5.991
88	11.873
89	4.122
90-94	18.739	0,14
90	6.779
91	1.946
92	2.184
93	4.121
94	3.709
95+	18.526	0,14
95	2.535
96	1.755
97	1.854
98+	12.382

Age group	Population	Percent
0-14	6.008.701	45,95
15-64	6.567.822	50,22
65+	500.637	3,83

TFR - 5,2

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 ^[1]

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. ^[1]

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 ^[3]

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):^[4]

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)

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Population growth rate

2.763% (2011 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 ^[5]

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 51.70 years
male: 50.93 years
female: 52.48 years (2011 est.)

Nationality

noun: Malawian(s)
adjective: Malawian

Ethnic groups

Religions

Christian: 70.9%
Muslim: 20.8%
Other: 3.1%
None: 4.3%

Languages

English (official), Chichewa (official), other languages important regionally

Literacy

Further information: Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 62.7%
male: 76.1%
female: 49.8% (2003 est.)

References

1 2 3 Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision
↑ 2008 Population and Housing Census
↑ http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/vitstats/serATab3.pdf
↑ http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/dhs#_r=&collection=&country=&dtype=&from=1890&page=9&ps=&sk=&sort_by=nation&sort_order=&to=2014&topic=&view=s&vk=
↑ von Bothmer, Eleanore (2009). "Global lack of medical doctors". Development and Cooperation (Frankfurt am Main: Societäts-Verlag) 36 (3): 94.

Ethnic groups in Malawi

Chewa Ngoni Nyakyusa Lomwe Sena Tonga Tumbuka Yao

Demographics of Africa

Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe

States with limited recognition	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland

Dependencies and other territories	Canary Islands / Ceuta / Melilla / Plazas de soberanía (Spain) Madeira (Portugal) Mayotte / Réunion (France) Saint Helena / Ascension Island / Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom) Western Sahara

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