The Central Region of

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

, population 7,523,340 (2018), covers an area of 35,592 km². Its capital city is

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, ,) is the capital and largest city 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 the central region of Malawi, i ...

, which is also the national capital. The region has an outlet on

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is ...

and borders neighbouring countries

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. The Chewa people make up the majority of the population today.

Geography

The Central region is bounded on the north by the Northern Region, on the east by

, on the southeast by Southern Region, on the southwest by

, and on east by

. Central Region straddles the western edge of the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...

. Lake Malawi occupies most of the rift valley, with a narrow plain running along its western shore. Much of the region lies on a plateau, known as the Central Region Plateau or Lilongwe Plain. The plateau covers 23,310 square km (9,000 square miles). A belt of hills and escarpments separates the plateau from the rift valley lowlands to the east. The Dwangwa, Bua, and

rivers drain the plateau, emptying eastwards into Lake Malawi. The southwestern boundary of the region is mountainous, including the northern end of the Kirk Range and Dedza Mountain (2,198 m).

Administration

Of the 27

districts 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, subdivisions ...

in Malawi, 9 are located within the Central Region. They are: Dedza, Dowa, Kasungu,

, Mchinji, Nkhotakota, Ntcheu, Ntchisi, and Salima.

Population

Ethnic groups

At the time of the 2018 Census of Malawi, the distribution of the population of the Central Region by

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

was as follows:2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census Main Report
/ref> * 71.5% Chewa * 14.6% Ngoni * 4.9% Yao * 3.2% Tumbuka * 3.1% Lomwe * 0.9%

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

* 0.5% Sena * 0.4% Sukwa * 0.4% Mang'anja * 0.2% Nyanja * 0.1% Nkhonde * 0.1% Lambya * 0.2% Others

References

Regions of Malawi {{malawi-geo-stub