IFPRI Malawi is pleased to announce the publication of a fifth Key Facts Sheet highlighting recent trends in poverty in Malawi. This follows Key Facts sheets on agriculture, food and nutrition security, social safety nets, and inequality. The series is being produced using the Integrated Household Surveys (IHS). The series synthesizes nationally representative household survey data into easily digestible facts that will inform key policy issues on agriculture, food systems, and development topics in Malawi.
Highlights from this Key Facts Sheet include:
- Between 2004 and 2016 the incidence of poverty in Malawi decreased slightly. This was due to large decreases in urban poverty, while poverty incidence in rural areas increased.
- Extreme poverty decreased at the urban and national levels between 2010 and 2016.
- In 2016, the national and urban poverty gaps were at their lowest, while the rural poverty gap was slightly higher than in 2004.
- The incidence of poverty in the Northern and Southern region decreased between 2010 and 2016; during the same period the incidence of poverty in the Central region increased but remained lower than in the other two regions.
- Taking into account measures of poverty other than consumption, the disparities between urban and rural areas decreased between 2004 and 2016.
- Malawi is among the countries with the highest incidence of poverty in Africa, with only Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi ranked as poorer.
Download the Key Facts sheet “Poverty” here. (PDF 369KB)
