Annual number of people affected by all natural disasters in Malawi

Malawi: Annual number of people affected by all natural disasters was 3.48 million people in 2025. ▲ Rising

Latest (2025)
3.48 million people
Change on year
up 32.7%
World rank
13th
of 78 countries
All-time high
3.48 million people
in 2025
All-time low
520,000 people
in 2007
Years of data
19
1987–2025

Annual number of people affected by all natural disasters in Malawi, 1987–2025

1.0M2.0M3.0M1987200620251987: 713.7k people1988: 715.6k people1990: 2.8M people1992: 1.4M people1993: 1.9M people1994: 1.9M people1995: 1.9M people2002: 2.8M people2005: 2.6M people2006: 2.5M people2007: 520.0k people2012: 561.2k people2013: 1.3M people2015: 749.0k people2016: 3.0M people2017: 3.0M people2022: 2.7M people2024: 2.6M people2025: 3.5M people

Source: EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in people.

Analysis

Malawi recorded 3.48 million people for annual number of people affected by all natural disasters in 2025. That is the highest value across all 19 years on record.

That represents a change of up 32.7% on the previous year and up 364.5% over ten years.

Over the whole period, annual number of people affected by all natural disasters in Malawi peaked at 3.48 million people in 2025 and was at its lowest, 520,000 people, in 2007.

Malawi ranks 13th of 78 countries on this measure, in the top quarter.

The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 19 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1980s 714,634 people 713,655 people 715,612 people 2
1990s 1.96 million people 1.41 million people 2.80 million people 5
2000s 2.11 million people 520,000 people 2.83 million people 4
2010s 1.72 million people 561,196 people 2.98 million people 5
2020s 2.93 million people 2.62 million people 3.48 million people 3

Countries ranked near Malawi

  1. 10 Niger 4.40 million people compare
  2. 11 South Sudan 3.69 million people compare
  3. 12 Burkina Faso 3.50 million people compare
  4. 14 Ethiopia 3.35 million people compare
  5. 15 Papua New Guinea 2.52 million people compare
  6. 16 Cambodia 2.50 million people compare
  7. 16 Mexico 2.50 million people compare

See the full ranking of 78 places →

More reference data data for Malawi

All data for Malawi →

Frequently asked questions

What is annual number of people affected by all natural disasters in Malawi?
Annual number of people affected by all natural disasters in Malawi was 3.48 million people in 2025, according to EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
What is the highest annual number of people affected by all natural disasters recorded in Malawi?
The highest recorded value was 3.48 million people in 2025.
What is the lowest annual number of people affected by all natural disasters recorded in Malawi?
The lowest recorded value was 520,000 people in 2007.
How does Malawi rank for annual number of people affected by all natural disasters?
Malawi ranks 13th out of 78 countries with data for 2025.
Is annual number of people affected by all natural disasters rising or falling in Malawi?
Over the last ten years it is up 364.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
Where does this Malawi data come from?
The figures come from EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Annual number of people affected by all natural disasters. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 19 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).

About this data

Indicator
Annual number of people affected by all natural disasters
Unit
people
Source
EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
78 places, 1,202 data points, 1900–2025
Last refreshed

Total number of people affected by a natural disaster.