Total & land area: Malawi vs Mali size comparison [2026]

Mali is 10.5 times bigger by total area compared to Malawi: 478,841 sq mi vs 45,747 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Mali is 471,118 sq mi vs 36,402 sq mi for Malawi — a 12.9 times difference in territory size.

Malawi ranks 98/197 by total surface area vs 23/197 for Mali.
Malawi occupies 0.06% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.82% for Mali.
64.2% of Malawi's area is agricultural land vs 35.5% in Mali.
Malawi has 0.13% of the world's agricultural land area — Mali has 0.91%.
22.4% of Malawi is covered by forests, compared to 10.9% in Mali.
0.05% of the world's forests are in Malawi, and 0.33% are in Mali.

True size map comparison: Malawi vs Mali

See how Malawi and Mali compare in true size on the map. Drag the outlines to different latitudes to see how the Mercator projection affects their apparent size.

Total size and land area comparison

	Malawi	Mali
Total area	45,747 sq mi	478,841 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	10.5
Total area rank	98/197	23/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.02%	0.24%
Land area	36,402 sq mi	471,118 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	12.9
Land area rank	107/197	23/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.06%	0.82%
Population	21,655,286	24,478,595
Population density	626 ppl/mi²	55.1 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Malawi	Mali
Forest area	8,169 sq mi	51,336 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	22.4%	10.9%
Forest area rank	106/196	47/196
World's forests share	0.05%	0.33%
Agricultural land area	23,359 sq mi	167,103 sq mi
Agricultural land share	64.2%	35.5%
Agricultural land area rank	82/194	22/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.13%	0.91%
Arable land	15,444 sq mi	32,205 sq mi
Arable land share	42.4%	6.84%
Arable land area rank	59/191	30/191
Permanent cropland	772 sq mi	1,152 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	2.12%	0.24%
Permanent cropland area rank	87/192	69/192
Water area	9,345 sq mi	7,723 sq mi
Water as share of total area	20.4%	1.61%
Water area rank	23/197	28/197
Roads length	9,601 mi	86,437 mi
Land borders length	1,775 mi	4,914 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	0 mi

Malawi vs Mali size on the map

Data sources: World Bank | Agriculture & Rural Development (2026, retrieved 2026-04-06).

GeoRank.org/size/malawi/mali | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Malawi and Mali but is not accurate for size comparison because it's a 2d map with Mercator projection that distorts territories near the poles. The farther a country is from the equator, the more magnified it appears. More about country size projections.