Malawi
Republic of Malawi
- Capital
- Lilongwe
- Region
- Eastern Africa
- Population, 2025
- 22 million
- Currency
- MWK
- Area
- 118,484 km²
Across Malawi's 2 priced cities, one person needs about $706 a month, rent included; the average net salary is $275.
Livability
The same seven domains as for cities, scored at country level; safety falls back to the homicide rate where Numbeo has no survey.
- Purchasing power25%31
- Safety20%93
- Health care15%No data
- Climate10%No data
- Air quality10%61
- Connectivity10%No data
- Cost10%91
How each domain is scored
- Purchasing power, 25%
- What a local net salary buys against local prices, as a percentile.
- Safety, 20%
- Numbeo safety index for the city, or for its country when the city has no survey.
- Health care, 15%
- Numbeo health care index, city first, then country.
- Climate, 10%
- Numbeo climate index where surveyed, otherwise a comfort score from NASA climate normals.
- Air quality, 10%
- 30-day mean US AQI on a 0-100 scale: 100 at AQI 25 or cleaner, 0 at 150 or worse.
- Connectivity, 10%
- Percentile of median fixed broadband download speed, city first, then country.
- Cost, 10%
- Cheaper places score higher: the percentile of the cost-of-living plus rent index, inverted.
What it costs
Averages over the country’s cities, weighted by population. New York = 100.
Economy
World Bank development indicators; each figure is the latest year with data.
Taxes
Headline rates side by side from three references, with the source of each.
- Top income tax rate
- 40%
- SourceTrading Economics
- Lowest income tax rate
- 0%
- SourceWikipedia
- Corporate tax
- 30%
- SourceTrading Economics
- VAT or sales tax
- 16.5%
- SourceTrading Economics
Headline statutory rates as of Sep 2026; brackets, allowances and regional taxes change what a given person pays.
Safety and internet
Numbeo’s crime survey, the World Bank homicide series and the Speedtest Global Index.
Safety
- Safety indexNumbeo, higher is safer
- —
- Crime indexNumbeo, lower is better
- —
- HomicidesPer 100,000 people, 2012
- 1.8
Internet
- Fixed downloadMbps, median
- —
- Mobile downloadMbps, median
- —
- Change in a yearFixed download speed
- —
Cities in Malawi
Sort by any column. Livability and cost use the same scales as every city page.
| 1Blantyre | 61 | 29.8 | $227 | $334 | 56.6 | 902.6K | Low confidence, 2 contributors |
| 2Lilongwe | 58 | 32.8 | — | $275 | 44.5 | 1.1M | Low confidence, 2 contributors |
| 3Mzuzu | — | — | — | — | — | 249.6K | Low confidence |
| 4Zomba | — | — | — | — | — | 118.4K | Low confidence |
| 5Kasungu | — | — | — | — | — | 66.2K | Low confidence |
| 6Dedza | — | — | — | — | — | 34.9K | Low confidence |
| 7Monkey Bay | — | — | — | — | — | 16.9K | Low confidence |
| 8Chikwawa | — | — | — | — | — | 7K | Low confidence |
| 9Kanjedza | — | — | — | — | — | — | Low confidence |