Lilongwe is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

in the Central Region of

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

. The capital is

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...

. The district covers an area of and has a population of 1,346,360. Lilongwe was officially declared a township in 1947. Life President Ngwazi Hastings Kamuzu Banda declared Lilongwe the capital city of Malawi on January 1, 1975 after a ten-year building period during which many people were forcibly displaced to make way for the new government buildings. Prior to 1975, the capital was the much smaller southern city of Zomba. Lilongwe is located above sea level and has a temperature range between . The airport is very small but quite adequate. It is served by

Kenya Airways Kenya Airways Ltd., more commonly known as Kenya Airways, is the flag carrier airline of Kenya. The company was founded in 1977, after the dissolution of East African Airways. Its head office is located in Embakasi, Nairobi, with its hub a ...

out of

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ...

South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier airline of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operated a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten dest ...

, proflight, Fastjet and Ethiopian Airways. In 2014 the government of Malawi relaunched its national airline and flies regionally to destinations like Dar es Salaam and Lusaka

Demographics

At the time of the

2018 Census of Malawi The 2018 Malawi census was the sixth national census in Malawi, which took place on 3-23 September 2018. The population of Malawi was counted as 17,563,749 – an increase of 4,534,251 (34.8%) over the 2008 census. Preliminary results from the ...

, the distribution of the population of Lilongwe District by

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

was as follows: * 94.5%

Chewa Chewa may refer to: *the Chewa people *the Chewa language Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambiq ...

* 2.1% Ngoni * 1.5% Yao * 1.0% Lomwe * 0.4% Tumbuka * 0.1%

Sena Sena may refer to: Places * Sanandaj or Sena, city in northwestern Iran * Sena (state constituency), represented in the Perlis State Legislative Assembly * Sena, Dashtestan, village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Sena, Huesca, municipality in Hue ...

* 0.1%

Mang'anja The Mang'anja are a Bantu people of central and southern Africa, particularly around Chikwawa in the Shire River valley of southern Malawi. They speak a dialect of the Nyanja language, and are a branch of the Amaravi people. As of 1996 their popu ...

* 0.1%

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

* 0.0% Nyanja * 0.0% Nkhonde * 0.0% Lambya * 0.0% Sukwa * 0.1% Others

Government and administrative divisions

There are twenty-two

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

constituencies in Lilongwe: * Lilongwe - Central * Lilongwe - City Central * Lilongwe - City North * Lilongwe - City South-East * Lilongwe - City South-West * Lilongwe - City West * Lilongwe - East * Lilongwe - Kumachenga * Lilongwe - Mapuyu North * Lilongwe - Mapuyu South * Lilongwe - Mpenu * Lilongwe - Mpenu Nkhoma * Lilongwe - Msinja North * Lilongwe - Msinja South * Lilongwe - Msozi North * Lilongwe - Msozi South * Lilongwe - North * Lilongwe - North East * Lilongwe - North West * Lilongwe - South * Lilongwe - South East * Lilongwe - South West Since the 2009 election all of these constituencies have been held by members of the Malawi Congress Party.

References

Districts of Malawi Districts in Central Region, Malawi {{malawi-geo-stub