Malawi Overview
As one of sub-Saharan Africa’s land locked countries, Malawi has limited access to international markets. Its economy is 90% reliant on agriculture as the primary export (largely tobacco), which also accounts for 33% of its total GDP. With few natural resources, and no oil reserves, Malawi must import the majority of what it consumes. This leaves the country’s economy incredibly vulnerable to fluctuating prices on the international market – particularly the cost of fuel (which Malawi must buy), and tobacco, which it must sell – even as many Western countries’ tobacco consumption declines through heavy taxation and restrictive legislation.
Commonly known as “The Warm Heart of Africa”
Located in Sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi borders Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. Malawi is slightly smaller than Pennsylvania and although it is landlocked, it has roughly 360 miles of lake running along its eastern border. The country has some strikingly beautiful mountains, including Mount Mulanje, located in southern Malawi, which rises 9,849 feet high.
Statistics: Population, Demographic & Poverty
- Approximately 15 million people live in Malawi.
- Just 15% of the population live in urban areas.
- Agriculture makes up 80% of all exports with the vast majority of the economy reliant upon tobacco.
- Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 153 out of 169 countries with comparable data accessible to the UN in the Human Development Index (2010).
- More than 50% of Malawian children are malnourished.
- About 11% of the population aged 15 years old and higher are HIV positive. This breaks down to roughly:
- 920,000 individuals living with HIV/AIDS
- 490,000 women living with HIV/AIDS
- 91,000 children living with HIV/AIDS
- 560,000 orphans as a result of deaths due to AIDS
Statistics: Women, Girls & Fertility
- For every 1000 adolescent girls living in Malawi, there are 193 births, compared to the World Health Organization’s African Region estimate of 118 births per 1000 women (2010)
- The average number of children a Malawian woman will have in her lifetime is 6.
- A woman who has completed primary school has an average total fertility rate of 6.2 children;
- After completing secondary school education, a woman’s total fertility rate drops to 4.3 children.
- 53% of girls are married, pregnant or raising children by the age of 18.
Statistics: The Link Between Girls, Education & Economics
- If a girl completes primary school her average age of marriage raises to 19.5;
- If she has completed secondary school, the age raises again to 22.1
- 29.4% of 15-19 year old females are still getting married, compared to 4.8% of same-aged males
- Only 13% of girls in Malawi attend secondary school, and of that less than half will finish. This means nearly 2.5 million girls have little to no chance of attending secondary school.
- Research by the World Bank showed that if you increase the rate of the female secondary school enrollment by just 1%, you increase per capita income on average by 0.3%
Learn more about the difference AGE Africa makes in lives of Malawian young women’s lives.
