Total & land area: Malawi vs S. Sudan size comparison [2026]

South Sudan is 5.44 times bigger by total area compared to Malawi: 248,777 sq mi vs 45,747 sq mi. Without inland water, the land area of South Sudan is 243,990 sq mi vs 36,402 sq mi for Malawi — a 6.7 times difference in territory size.

Malawi ranks 98/197 by total surface area vs 41/197 for South Sudan.
Malawi occupies 0.06% of the land mass of all countries, compared with 0.42% for South Sudan.
64.2% of Malawi's area is agricultural land vs 44.9% in South Sudan.
Malawi has 0.13% of the world's agricultural land area — S. Sudan has 0.59%.
22.4% of Malawi is covered by forests, compared to 11.3% in S. Sudan.
0.05% of the world's forests are in Malawi, and 0.18% are in South Sudan.

True size map comparison: Malawi vs South Sudan

See how Malawi and South Sudan 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	South Sudan
Total area	45,747 sq mi	248,777 sq mi
Size difference ratio	1	5.44
Total area rank	98/197	41/197
Share of all countries' surface area	0.02%	0.13%
Land area	36,402 sq mi	243,990 sq mi
Land area difference ratio	1	6.7
Land area rank	107/197	41/197
Share of all countries' land area	0.06%	0.42%
Population	21,655,286	11,943,408
Population density	626 ppl/mi²	51 ppl/mi²

Surface area by type

	Malawi	South Sudan
Forest area	8,169 sq mi	27,633 sq mi
Forest area as share of land	22.4%	11.3%
Forest area rank	106/196	63/196
World's forests share	0.05%	0.18%
Agricultural land area	23,359 sq mi	109,449 sq mi
Agricultural land share	64.2%	44.9%
Agricultural land area rank	82/194	40/194
Share of global agricultural land	0.13%	0.59%
Arable land	15,444 sq mi	9,611 sq mi
Arable land share	42.4%	3.94%
Arable land area rank	59/191	76/191
Permanent cropland	772 sq mi	328 sq mi
Permanent cropland share	2.12%	0.13%
Permanent cropland area rank	87/192	106/192
Water area	9,345 sq mi	4,787 sq mi
Water as share of total area	20.4%	1.92%
Water area rank	23/197	41/197
Roads length	9,601 mi	n/a
Land borders length	1,775 mi	3,739 mi
Coastline length	0 mi	0 mi

Malawi vs South Sudan size on the map

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

GeoRank.org/size/malawi/south-sudan | CC BY

The map above outlines the borders of Malawi and South Sudan 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.