Forest area in Malawi
Malawi: Forest area was 2.03 million hectares in 2025. ▼ Falling
Forest area in Malawi, 1990–2025
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in hectares.
Analysis
The most recent figure for forest area in Malawi is 2.03 million hectares, measured in 2025. That is the lowest value across all 36 years on record.
That represents a change of down 2.0% on the previous year and down 17.1% over ten years.
Over the whole period, forest area in Malawi peaked at 3.50 million hectares in 1990 and was at its lowest, 2.03 million hectares, in 2025.
Malawi ranks 110th of 235 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 36 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 3.31 million hectares | 3.12 million hectares | 3.50 million hectares | 10 |
| 2000s | 2.89 million hectares | 2.70 million hectares | 3.08 million hectares | 10 |
| 2010s | 2.47 million hectares | 2.28 million hectares | 2.66 million hectares | 10 |
| 2020s | 2.14 million hectares | 2.03 million hectares | 2.24 million hectares | 6 |
Countries ranked near Malawi
More environment data for Malawi
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF 19.02 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF per capita 0.8785 t CO2e/capita (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Agriculture 5.42 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Building (Energy) 0.7527 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Fugitive Emissions (Energy) 1.9 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Industrial Combustion (Energy) 0.0074 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions (total) excluding LULUCF 9.34 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Power Industry (Energy) 0.0006 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Transport (Energy) 0.0087 Mt CO2e (2024)
- Methane (CH4) emissions from Waste 1.25 Mt CO2e (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is forest area in Malawi?
- Forest area in Malawi was 2.03 million hectares in 2025, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest forest area recorded in Malawi?
- The highest recorded value was 3.50 million hectares in 1990.
- What is the lowest forest area recorded in Malawi?
- The lowest recorded value was 2.03 million hectares in 2025.
- How does Malawi rank for forest area?
- Malawi ranks 110th out of 235 countries with data for 2025.
- Is forest area rising or falling in Malawi?
- Over the last ten years it is down 17.1%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this Malawi data come from?
- The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Forest area. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 36 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Forest area is land under natural or planted stands of trees of at least 5 meters in situ, whether productive or not, and excludes tree stands in agricultural production systems.