Roofing in Malawi

Malawi is a narrow, mainly rural country along Lake Malawi. Its roofs show one of the clearest thatch-to-metal transitions in the region: in the 2019-20 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, iron sheets and grass thatch together account for over 98% of recorded roofs, with metal only slightly ahead.

Climate and hazards

Rain falls mainly in a single wet season.

Roofing history

Household surveys since the 1990s record roof material for every household, and 2019-20 survey data show the country close to an even split between thatch and iron sheet.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Grass-thatched houses: still the roof on over 40% of households in recent survey data, making Malawi one of the countries in the region where thatch remains closest to metal sheet in share. For comparison, thatch made up about 27.5% of households in Lesotho's 2018 MICS file and about 19.6% in Zimbabwe's 2019 MICS file (unweighted).

Roofing today

In the unweighted 2019-20 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey sample (25,419 households with a recorded roof):

Main roof material (HC5)	Share of sampled households
Iron sheets / metal / tin	54.6%
Thatch / palm leaf	43.9%
Cement	0.6%
Wood planks, mats, tiles, shingles, other	0.7%
No roof	0.2%

Local roofing terms

The international survey category names used in Malawi are iron sheets, thatch or palm leaf, cement, wood planks and rustic mat.

Sources and gaps

Specific roof hazard data: published information is limited. Detailed archaeological evidence for early roofs was not found in published sources. No national roofing standard was identified. No information on domestic roofing manufacturers was found in published sources. No roof-specific heritage listings were identified. No Chichewa roofing terms were found in published sources.

Survey shares are unweighted counts in the MICS sample. Published 2018 census housing tables, Chewa and Ngoni building traditions and information on burnt-brick and iron-sheet supply: published information is limited.