1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Malawi
Compare this sourced profile of Lilongwe, Malawi before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Lilongwe—1,115,815, Africa/Blantyre, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: capital of Malawi.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Lilongwe is GeoNames ID 927967. Its recorded administrative path is Lilongwe District → Central Region → Malawi, and GeoNames classifies the place as a capital of a political entity. Lilongwe occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2024-01-18; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Lilongwe ranks 485 by recorded population. Inside the 2 selected Malawi entries it ranks 1; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 99. Its 1,115,815 population value is 1.11 times the 1,009,202 median for the country cohort and 1.24 times the 902,588 regional median. Lilongwe is rank 1 among the 2 selected Malawi entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Lilongwe's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Lilongwe's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Blantyre at 241.026 km with 902,588 recorded people; Harare at 519.362 km with 1,542,813 recorded people; Mbeya at 564.613 km with 541,603 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 323.587 km. Compared with Blantyre, Lilongwe's recorded population is 1.24 times as large. Against Lilongwe, Blantyre follows Blantyre District → Southern Region → Malawi in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Malawi cohort, uses the shared Africa/Blantyre identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Lilongwe's. Against Lilongwe, Harare follows Harare → Zimbabwe in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Zimbabwe cohort rather than Malawi, uses Africa/Harare instead of Africa/Blantyre, and carries the same capital of a political entity class. Its recorded population is above Lilongwe's. Against Lilongwe, Mbeya follows Mbeya City → Mbeya → Tanzania in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Tanzania cohort rather than Malawi, uses Africa/Dar_es_Salaam instead of Africa/Blantyre, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Lilongwe's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,053 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Lilongwe's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 927967, the coordinate pair 13.9669 / 33.7873, country rank 1 of 2, and neighbor GeoNames 931755 at 241.026 km bind Lilongwe to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Lilongwe's reference point is 13.9669° south and 33.7873° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Blantyre is shared by 2 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLC is shared by 129 rows. Lilongwe's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Lilongwe's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Lilongwe's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Lilongwe, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Lilongwe's closest other entries in this atlas are Blantyre (241.026 km), Harare (519.362 km), Mbeya (564.613 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Lilongwe, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2024-01-18; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.