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

Peru is 10.8 times bigger by total area compared to Malawi: 496,225 sq mi vs 45,747 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of Peru is 494,211 sq mi vs 36,402 sq mi for Malawi — a 13.6 times difference in territory size.

Malawi ranks 98/197 by total surface area vs 19/197 for Peru.
Malawi occupies 0.06% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.86% for Peru.
64.2% of Malawi's area is agricultural land vs 19.1% in Peru.
Malawi has 0.13% of the world's agricultural land area — Peru has 0.51%.
22.4% of Malawi is covered by forests, compared to 56.1% in Peru.
0.05% of the world's forests are in Malawi, and 1.78% are in Peru.

True size map comparison: Malawi vs Peru

See how Malawi and Peru 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	Peru
Total area	45,747 sq mi	496,225 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	10.8
Total area rank	98/197	19/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.02%	0.25%
Land area	36,402 sq mi	494,211 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	13.6
Land area rank	107/197	19/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.06%	0.86%
Population	21,655,286	34,217,848
Population density	626 ppl/mi²	70.7 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Malawi	Peru
Forest area	8,169 sq mi	277,267 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	22.4%	56.1%
Forest area rank	106/196	10/196
World's forests share	0.05%	1.78%
Agricultural land area	23,359 sq mi	94,153 sq mi
Agricultural land share	64.2%	19.1%
Agricultural land area rank	82/194	46/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.13%	0.51%
Arable land	15,444 sq mi	15,129 sq mi
Arable land share	42.4%	3.06%
Arable land area rank	59/191	60/191
Permanent cropland	772 sq mi	8,804 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	2.12%	1.78%
Permanent cropland area rank	87/192	18/192
Water area	9,345 sq mi	2,014 sq mi
Water as share of total area	20.4%	0.41%
Water area rank	23/197	64/197
Roads length	9,601 mi	109,106 mi
Land borders length	1,775 mi	4,388 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	1,500 mi
Share of marine protected waters	n/a	7.9%

Malawi vs Peru size on the map

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

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

The map above outlines the borders of Malawi and Peru 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.