Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Malawi
Malawi: Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area was 24.08 1000 ha in 2024. ▲ Rising
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Malawi, 2001–2024
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Measured in 1000 ha.
Analysis
Malawi recorded 24.08 1000 ha for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in 2024. That is the highest value across all 24 years on record.
Compared with earlier readings it is up 1.3% on the previous year and up 11.7% over ten years.
Over the whole period, artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Malawi peaked at 24.08 1000 ha in 2024 and was at its lowest, 18.97 1000 ha, in 2001.
Malawi ranks 132nd of 223 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 24 years of available data.
Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area in Malawi, year by year
| Year | 1000 ha | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 18.97 1000 ha | — |
| 2002 | 19.57 1000 ha | +3.2% |
| 2003 | 19.61 1000 ha | +0.2% |
| 2004 | 19.89 1000 ha | +1.4% |
| 2005 | 20 1000 ha | +0.6% |
| 2006 | 20.15 1000 ha | +0.7% |
| 2007 | 20.36 1000 ha | +1.0% |
| 2008 | 20.62 1000 ha | +1.3% |
| 2009 | 20.75 1000 ha | +0.6% |
| 2010 | 20.98 1000 ha | +1.1% |
| 2011 | 21.05 1000 ha | +0.3% |
| 2012 | 21.22 1000 ha | +0.8% |
| 2013 | 21.37 1000 ha | +0.7% |
| 2014 | 21.56 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2015 | 21.86 1000 ha | +1.4% |
| 2016 | 22.12 1000 ha | +1.2% |
| 2017 | 22.31 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2018 | 22.48 1000 ha | +0.8% |
| 2019 | 22.61 1000 ha | +0.6% |
| 2020 | 22.91 1000 ha | +1.3% |
| 2021 | 23.21 1000 ha | +1.3% |
| 2022 | 23.55 1000 ha | +1.5% |
| 2023 | 23.76 1000 ha | +0.9% |
| 2024 | 24.08 1000 ha | +1.3% |
Malawi compared with similar countries
- Malawi's 24.08 1000 ha is below the median for low income countries, which is 30.94 1000 ha, 78% of the median. (22 countries reporting)
- Malawi's 24.08 1000 ha is below the median for Sub-Saharan Africa, which is 37.07 1000 ha, 65% of the median. (44 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 19.99 1000 ha | 18.97 1000 ha | 20.75 1000 ha | 9 |
| 2010s | 21.76 1000 ha | 20.98 1000 ha | 22.61 1000 ha | 10 |
| 2020s | 23.5 1000 ha | 22.91 1000 ha | 24.08 1000 ha | 5 |
Countries ranked near Malawi
- 129 Latvia 25.26 1000 ha compare
- 130 Albania 24.61 1000 ha compare
- 131 China, Hong Kong SAR 24.47 1000 ha compare
- 133 Papua New Guinea 23.15 1000 ha compare
- 134 Sierra Leone 23.09 1000 ha compare
- 135 Brunei Darussalam 22.91 1000 ha compare
More environment data for Malawi
- Historical exposure to drought — Land soil moisture anomaly -0.9153 Percentage change (2025)
- Historical exposure to drought — Cropland soil moisture anomaly -0.8098 Percentage change (2025)
- Standard Deviation, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Standard Deviation 0.254 °C (2025)
- Temperature change 1.07 °C (2025)
- Wood-based panels — Production, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), annual 3.65 % change on previous year (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), per unit 0 Mt CO2e per US$ of GDP (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF (Mt CO2e), per capita 0 Mt CO2e per person (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture (Mt CO2e), annual growth rate 5.3 % change on previous year (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Malawi?
- Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area in Malawi was 24.08 1000 ha in 2024, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- What is the highest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Malawi?
- The highest recorded value was 24.08 1000 ha in 2024.
- What is the lowest artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area recorded in Malawi?
- The lowest recorded value was 18.97 1000 ha in 2001.
- How does Malawi rank for artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area?
- Malawi ranks 132nd out of 223 countries with data for 2024.
- Is artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — area rising or falling in Malawi?
- Over the last ten years it is up 11.7%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Malawi data come from?
- The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as part of Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) — Area from MODIS. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 24 observations, free to reuse under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO).
About this data
The FAOSTAT domain on Land Cover data under the Agri-Environmental Indicators section contains land cover information organized by the land cover classes of the international standard system for Environmental and Economic Accounting Central Framework (SEEA CF). The land cover information is compiled from publicly available Global Land Cover (GLC) maps: a) MODIS land cover types based on the Land Cover Classification System, LCCS; b) The European Spatial Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) annual land cover maps produced by the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)-Geomatics and now under the European Copernicus Program; c) The annual land cover maps which were produced under the European Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS) (CGLS land cover, containing discrete land cover categorization), with spatial resolution 100m; and d) the WorldCover maps of the European Space Agency, produced at 10m resolution.