What is the highest arable land recorded in Malawi?

The highest recorded value was 0.4169 hectares per person in 1966.

What is the lowest arable land recorded in Malawi?

The lowest recorded value was 0.1895 hectares per person in 2023.

How does Malawi rank for arable land?

Malawi ranks 64th out of 206 countries with data for 2023.

Is arable land rising or falling in Malawi?

Over the last ten years it is down 13.6%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.

Arable land in Malawi

Name: Arable land in Malawi
Creator: FAO electronic files and web site, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
License: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)

Malawi: Arable land was 0.1895 hectares per person in 2023. ▼ Falling

Latest (2023)

0.1895 hectares per person

Change on year

down 2.5%

World rank

64th

of 206 countries

All-time high

0.4169 hectares per person

in 1966

All-time low

0.1895 hectares per person

in 2023

Years of data

1961–2023

Arable land in Malawi, 1961–2023

Source: FAO electronic files and web site, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Measured in hectares per person.

Analysis

The most recent figure for arable land in Malawi is 0.1895 hectares per person, measured in 2023. That is the lowest value across all 63 years on record.

The figure is down 2.5% on the previous year and down 13.6% over ten years.

Over the whole period, arable land in Malawi peaked at 0.4169 hectares per person in 1966 and was at its lowest, 0.1895 hectares per person, in 2023.

That places Malawi 64th out of 206 countries with data for 2023, putting it in the middle of the range.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 63 years of available data.

Averages by decade

Decade	Average	Lowest	Highest	Years
1960s	0.3899 hectares per person	0.3499 hectares per person	0.4169 hectares per person	9
1970s	0.3812 hectares per person	0.34 hectares per person	0.4104 hectares per person	10
1980s	0.2769 hectares per person	0.2397 hectares per person	0.3098 hectares per person	10
1990s	0.2307 hectares per person	0.2066 hectares per person	0.2444 hectares per person	10
2000s	0.2447 hectares per person	0.2399 hectares per person	0.25 hectares per person	10
2010s	0.2169 hectares per person	0.2038 hectares per person	0.2361 hectares per person	10
2020s	0.1962 hectares per person	0.1895 hectares per person	0.2014 hectares per person	4

Countries ranked near Malawi

61 Eritrea 0.1988 hectares per person compare
62 Tonga 0.1912 hectares per person compare
63 South Africa 0.1898 hectares per person compare
65 Afghanistan 0.1893 hectares per person compare
66 Sierra Leone 0.1872 hectares per person compare
67 Syria 0.1865 hectares per person compare

See the full ranking of 253 places →

More agriculture & rural data for Malawi

Agricultural raw materials exports 0.9% (2024)
Agricultural raw materials imports 2.7% (2024)
Rural population 82.4% (2025)
Rural population growth 2.2% (2025)
Rural population 18.31 million (2025)
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added 30.0% (2025)
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added 4.48 billion current US$ (2025)
Land under cereal production 2.04 million hectares (2023)
Cereal yield 1,857 kg per hectare (2023)
Cereal production 3.80 million metric tons (2023)

All data for Malawi →

Frequently asked questions

What is arable land in Malawi?: Arable land in Malawi was 0.1895 hectares per person in 2023, according to FAO electronic files and web site, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
What is the highest arable land recorded in Malawi?: The highest recorded value was 0.4169 hectares per person in 1966.
What is the lowest arable land recorded in Malawi?: The lowest recorded value was 0.1895 hectares per person in 2023.
How does Malawi rank for arable land?: Malawi ranks 64th out of 206 countries with data for 2023.
Is arable land rising or falling in Malawi?: Over the last ten years it is down 13.6%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this Malawi data come from?: The figures come from FAO electronic files and web site, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), published as part of Arable land (hectares per person). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 63 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data).

About this data

Indicator: Arable land (hectares per person)
Unit: hectares per person
Source: FAO electronic files and web site, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 253 places, 14,649 data points, 1961–2023
Last refreshed: 06 August 2026

Arable land (hectares per person) includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded.