Africa 101.2: Malawi Statistics

Geography
Malawi is a small landlocked country on the Southeastern side of Africa. According to the CIA's World Factbook, Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world. It is about the same geographic size as the state of Pennsylvania, but much of the country is swallowed up by Lake Malawi. Only 20% of the land is arable (capable of growing crops), however only a little over 1% of that land is used for the permanent growth of crops such as tobacco, tea, maize and sugarcane.

Population
The state of Arkansas has a population of about 3 million people. Malawi is only about 1/5 the size of Arkansas, yet has a population of about 15 million people. Roughly 45% of the total population of Malawi is children, and nearly 16% of those children are orphans. That brings the total number of orphans in the country of Malawi to somewhere over 1 million children.

Poverty
Up to 65% of Malawi’s population lives below the poverty line of less than $1.00 per day, according to government statistics. As much as 90% live on less than $2.00 per day.

Mortality Rate
There are 13 deaths for every 1000 people each year in Malawi. The life expectancy at birth is 50 years, compared to 78 in the United States. For infants, there are 83 deaths out of every 1000 live births, and 1 in 10 children die before their fifth birthday.

HIV /AIDS
AIDS is the leading cause of death in Malawi. Of the 8.5 million adult population, almost 12% of them have AIDS, or 1 out of every 8 adults. As of 2007, there were 68,000 AIDS deaths per year. Putting that number into even greater perspective, that means 186 adults die of AIDS every day in Malawi.

Since 1991, Malawi has ranked among the bottom 20 countries worldwide on the Human Development Index. Chronic poverty, poor harvests and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS conspires to eliminate a bright future for the over 1 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Malawi. As the number of orphaned and vulnerable children increase in Malawi, it is proving increasingly difficult for surviving parents, their extended families and relatives who are already under economic hardships, to provide, protect and care for the expanding numbers.