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

Malawi is 1.6 times bigger by total area compared to Panama: 45,747 sq mi vs 28,640 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Malawi is 36,402 sq mi vs 28,641 sq mi for Panama — a 1.27 times difference in territory size.

Malawi ranks 98/197 by total surface area vs 116/197 for Panama.
Malawi occupies 0.06% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.05% for Panama.
64.2% of Malawi's area is agricultural land vs 29.5% in Panama.
Malawi has 0.13% of the world's agricultural land area — Panama has 0.05%.
22.4% of Malawi is covered by forests, compared to 56.3% in Panama.
0.05% of the world's forests are in Malawi, and 0.1% are in Panama.

True size map comparison: Malawi vs Panama

See how Malawi and Panama 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	Panama
Total area	45,747 sq mi	28,640 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1.6	1
Total area rank	98/197	116/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.02%	0.01%
Land area	36,402 sq mi	28,641 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1.27	1
Land area rank	107/197	115/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.06%	0.05%
Population	21,655,286	4,515,577
Population density	626 ppl/mi²	161.6 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Malawi	Panama
Forest area	8,169 sq mi	16,138 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	22.4%	56.3%
Forest area rank	106/196	74/196
World's forests share	0.05%	0.1%
Agricultural land area	23,359 sq mi	8,456 sq mi
Agricultural land share	64.2%	29.5%
Agricultural land area rank	82/194	115/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.13%	0.05%
Arable land	15,444 sq mi	2,181 sq mi
Arable land share	42.4%	7.62%
Arable land area rank	59/191	121/191
Permanent cropland	772 sq mi	448 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	2.12%	1.56%
Permanent cropland area rank	87/192	101/192
Water area	9,345 sq mi	0 sq mi
Water as share of total area	20.4%	0%
Water area rank	23/197	187/197
Roads length	9,601 mi	n/a
Land borders length	1,775 mi	427 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	1,547 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	26.3%

Malawi vs Panama size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Malawi and Panama 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.