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Country Map & Estimates of Vision Loss

Malawi

In 2020 in Malawi, there were an estimated 1.7 million people with vision loss. Of these, 69,000 people were blind.

Malawi

  • GBD Region
    Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa
  • GBD Super Region
    Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Population (2020)
    19.1 million
  • GDP per capita ($US, 2019)
    412
  • Human Development Index (HDI) (2019)
    0.49 (low)
  • Blindness (crude)
    0.40%
  • All vision loss (crude)
    9.00%
  • Proportion who are female
    57%
  • Gender ratio (age-std)
    1.06

Breakdown of vision loss chart

If you would like to explore these data in different ways, you can select:

  • Location: compare up to three different countries.
  • Time: look at trends in the data between 1990 and 2020.
  • Age: look at vision loss for all ages compared to adults aged 50+.

You can then select the location, year, vision loss measure, age and gender to explore vision loss predicted by the VLEG/GBD 2020 model.

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Crude prevalence of vision loss, 2020

(all ages, males & females)

Source: Data from VLEG/GBD 2020 model, accessed via the IAPB Vision Atlas
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National indicators for eye health services in Malawi

IAPB has collected key national indicator data on an annual basis since 2008.

Data sources include Ministry of Health staff or other key respondents, as well as published data. Data have not been received for all countries, or all indicators. The “Year Last Reported” column shows the most recent data received, and “No data” indicates no data available to IAPB in any year since 2008.

More information on data sources and limitations is available on the National indicators page.

Indicator
Data
Rank
Year Last Reported
Data Source
Cataract surgical service delivery
Effective cataract surgical coverage (eCSC)
13.9%
20 of 20
2010
Ramke et al., 2017
Cataract surgeries performed (annual)
5,000
89 of 120
Cataract surgical rate (CSR) (per million)
268
159 of 176
2019
Ministry of Health or key respondent
Number of eye care personnel by cadre
No. of ophthalmologists
14
2019
Ministry of Health or key respondent
Ophthalmologists per million
0.5
186 of 191
2019
Ministry of Health or key respondent
No. of optometrists
102
2019
WCO/AVRI/BHVI
Optometrists per million
5.3
103 of 159
2019
WCO/AVRI/BHVI
No. of allied ophthalmic personnel
136
2019
Ministry of Health or key respondent
Allied ophthalmic personnel per million
7
77 of 102
2019
Ministry of Health or key respondent
Data and assessments
Eye health prevalence data survey completed (since 1987)
Prevalence, RAAB
2010
VLEG, RAAB Repository
Eye Care Service Assessment completed?
ECSAT
2019
Ministry of Health or key respondent
International Vision Health Scorecard
No data
National eye health resources and plans
National Eye Health Co-ordinator
Yes
Ministry of Health or key respondent
National Eye Committee
Yes
Ministry of Health or key respondent
National Eye Health Plan
Yes
Ministry of Health or key respondent
National Eye Health Plan Start Date
2017
Ministry of Health or key respondent
National Eye Health Plan End Date
2022
Ministry of Health or key respondent