Malawi, Population

More than 99 percent of the people of Malawi are black Africans. Principal ethnic groups include the Chewa, who constitute 90 percent of the population of the central region; the Nyanja, who predominate in the south; the Tumbuka, who predominate in the north; the Ngoni, an offshoot of the Zulu, who settled in the lower northern and lower central regions in the 1800s; and the Yao, who are mostly Muslim and live along the southeastern border. The rest of the inhabitants, principally settlers of British and Indian origin, form less than one-half of 1 percent of the population. Some 75 percent of the people live in rural villages.