Environment - current issues: deforestation; land degradation; water pollution from agricultural runoff, sewage, industrial wastes; siltation of spawning grounds endangers fish populations
Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea
Geography - note:
landlocked; Lake Nyasa, some 580 km long, is the country's most
prominent physical feature
People Malawi
Population:
11,906,855
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
2004 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 46.8% (male 2,811,751; female 2,759,515)
15-64 years: 50.5% (male 2,978,406; female 3,029,735)
65 years and over: 2.8% (male 130,600; female 196,848) (2004 est.)
Median age:
total: 16.4 years
male: 16.1 years
female: 16.7 years (2004 est.)
Population growth rate:
2.14% (2004 est.)
Birth rate:
44.35 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)
Death rate:
23.01 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)