africa • MWI
Malawi
Location marker · geographic overview
13.5° S / 34° ETHE WORLD, ONE COUNTRY AT A TIME
- Capital
- Lilongwe
- Population
- 21,655,286 2024
- Area
- 118,484 km² (year unavailable)
- Languages source-listed
- English, Chewa
- Currency
- Malawian kwacha (MWK)
- Geography
- Landlocked
Population: World Bank 2024. Other facts: REST Countries snapshot. Sources & limitations.
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Discover Malawi
FROM THE TRAVEL GUIDE · Malawi
Malawi (Chichewa: Malaŵi, Chitumbuka: Malaŵi) is a small, landlocked country in Africa whose eastern border mostly follows Lake Malawi, the third largest lake on the continent. It's described as the "Warm Heart of Africa", referring to the friendliness of the people.
Food & everyday culture
Traditional Malawian food revolves around one staple, maize, served in one form, nsima/sima (n'SEE-ma/SEE-ma). Nsima/Sima is basically a type of thick porridge, rolled into balls with your right hand and dipped into a variety of stews known as relishes.Read the eat section ↗
Excerpts from Wikivoyage contributors, revision 2026-09-14. CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected excerpts; wiki formatting removed; omissions marked […]. Guide wording and any figures belong to this dated source; they do not replace the atlas statistics above. Food descriptions are not official national-dish designations.
A little more to discover +
- National flower
- Not yet verified
- Official national dish
- Not yet verified
- Representative food
- Not yet verified
- Subregion
- Eastern Africa
- Calling code
- +265
- Internet domain
- .mw
- Land border codes
- MOZ, TZA, ZMB
Quick facts
- Traffic keeps to the left side of the road. Source ↗
- The country-code web domain is .mw. Source ↗
- The source lists monday as the start of the week. Source ↗
Population: World Bank 2024. Other facts: REST Countries snapshot. Source-matched September 26, 2026; not live data. Sources & limitations.