Geography Quiz Arcade

Malawi 🇲🇼

Malawi is a country in Africa with a population of 20,405,317. Its capital is Lilongwe. The official currency is MWK, and the main languages are English, Chichewa.

Quick facts

  • Capital: Lilongwe
  • Continent: Africa
  • Population: 20,405,317
  • Area: 118,484 km²
  • Density: 172 people per km²
  • Currency: MWK
  • Languages: English, Chichewa
  • ISO code: MW

Where Malawi sits

Malawi 🇲🇼 is one of 54 countries in Africa, with its capital at Lilongwe. It covers 118,484 square kilometres — 98th in the world — and is home to about 20,405,317 people, 62nd globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Malawi compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Malawi sits closest to Zambia and Romania. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Eritrea and North Korea.

At 172 people per square kilometre it is about 2.9 times the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by population than by area, so it is more crowded than its size alone suggests.

English is an official language in 58 countries here, among them Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas and Barbados, and 53 others. The MWK is used by Malawi and no one else.

To see Malawi next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Malawi

Think L for Lilongwe, L for Lake: Malawi is the long, thin country beside Lake Malawi, and Lilongwe became its capital in 1975, taking over from Zomba. For the flag, a red sun rises over a black sky.

The flag of Malawi: black, red and green, with a red rising sun

🇲🇼 The flag is three horizontal stripes of black, red and green, with a red rising sun on the black stripe. Black stands for the people, red for the blood shed in the struggle for freedom and green for nature. The rising sun stands for the dawn of hope and freedom for Africa.

Region and neighbours

Malawi is a long, narrow landlocked country in southeastern Africa, where the Great Rift Valley runs from north to south beside Lake Malawi. It shares land borders with 3 countries: Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. Malawi is landlocked, with no coast on the open ocean.

Three facts about Malawi

  1. Malawi is nicknamed 'the Warm Heart of Africa' because of the friendliness of its people.
  2. Lake Malawi has more species of fish than any other lake in the world, including at least 700 kinds of colourful cichlids.
  3. Before it became independent in 1964, Malawi was called Nyasaland.

Sources: Wikipedia: Malawi, Wikipedia: Flag of Malawi, Wikipedia: Lilongwe, Wikipedia: Lake Malawi, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Malawi

Quizzes that include Malawi

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Malawi those are:

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Read more about Malawi

Nearby countries

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Malawi flag?

The flag of Malawi is three horizontal stripes of black, red and green, with a red rising sun on the black stripe. Black stands for the people, red for the blood shed in the struggle for freedom and green for nature. The rising sun stands for the dawn of hope and freedom for Africa.

Which countries border Malawi?

Malawi shares land borders with Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique.

How can I remember the capital of Malawi?

Think L for Lilongwe, L for Lake: Malawi is the long, thin country beside Lake Malawi, and Lilongwe became its capital in 1975, taking over from Zomba. For the flag, a red sun rises over a black sky.