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Malawi vs Tanzania

On research quality in 2022-now, Malawi ranks #61 in the world and Tanzania #64, of 189 countries. Malawi stands higher in 2 of the 15 fields both publish in, Tanzania in 13.

Research profiles alike: 0.92very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Malawi

World rank, 2022-now
#61
#55 all time
Works, 2022-now
3k
fractional
Top-10% rate
9.5%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
63%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Forestry, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Parasitology.

Tanzania

World rank, 2022-now
#64
#74 all time
Works, 2022-now
17k
fractional
Top-10% rate
7.7%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
69%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Library and Information Sciences, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Parasitology.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Malawi leads on 5 of 9 measures: research quality, excellence for its fields, top-10% rate, citations per work and international co-authorship. Tanzania leads on 3 of 9 measures: output, open access and growth. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100.

Malawi 51 level3 Tanzania
  1. #61Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#64
  2. 1.12×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.90×
  3. 3kOutputfractional works, 2022-now17k
  4. 9.5%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited7.7%
  5. 16.6Citations per workall time, per fractional work14.6
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 63%Open accessof its works free to read, all time69%
  8. 49%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time30%
  9. +46%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+101%

A rank is drawn as its standing: the longer the bar, the nearer the top. Anything else is drawn against the larger of the two, and two values a hair apart are called level. Quality, excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Malawi stands higher in 2 of 15 fields, Tanzania in 13. Tanzania leads most in Environmental Science (#66 against #72); Malawi leads most in Medicine (#45 against #49). Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Malawi 213 Tanzania
  1. #51Agricultural and Biological Sciences#50
  2. -Arts and Humanities#65
  3. -Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology#63
  4. -Business, Management and Accounting#59
  5. -Computer Science#78
  6. -Decision Sciences#51
  7. -Economics, Econometrics and Finance#62
  8. -Engineering#84
  9. #72Environmental Science#66
  10. -Health Professions#50
  11. -Immunology and Microbiology#41
  12. #45Medicine#49
  13. -Nursing#44
  14. -Psychology#67
  15. #65Social Sciences#66

Standing is the percentile of world rank within each field, 2022-now; the printed number is the rank itself. A dash means the field is too small there to rank. How sides are compared.

The numbers behind each field

Click a heading to sort. The side that does better in a pair of columns is shaded: a lower rank, a higher rate, more works.

Field Malawi rankTanzania rank Malawi top 10%Tanzania top 10% Malawi worksTanzania works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #51 #50 11.7% 9.3% 336 1.8k
Arts and Humanities - #65 - 9.3% - 341
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology - #63 - 7.8% - 451
Business, Management and Accounting - #59 - 7.3% - 1.4k
Computer Science - #78 - 7.5% - 773
Decision Sciences - #51 - 3.7% - 353
Economics, Econometrics and Finance - #62 - 6.2% - 768
Engineering - #84 - 6.5% - 964
Environmental Science #72 #66 7.4% 6.8% 275 1.4k
Health Professions - #50 - 10.9% - 630
Immunology and Microbiology - #41 - 10.6% - 256
Medicine #45 #49 11.8% 8.1% 641 3.1k
Nursing - #44 - 8.3% - 220
Psychology - #67 - 6.5% - 434
Social Sciences #65 #66 8.2% 7.4% 534 3.4k

What is each known for?

The keywords that describe each side's research, by fractional works in 2022-now and weighted toward what it does more of than the world.

Malawi

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Epidemiology245▲ 1.73×119 topics
  2. Climate Change202▲ 2.1×103 topics
  3. Sustainability141▲ 1.62×81 topics
  4. Globalization99▲ 1.41×86 topics
  5. Environmental Impact98▲ 1.61×51 topics
  6. Maternal Mortality91▲ 11×5 topics
  7. Sustainable Agriculture88▲ 8.0×13 topics
  8. Community Health Workers87▲ 28×2 topics
  9. Antiretroviral Therapy80▲ 14×6 topics
  10. Health Inequalities76▲ 18×4 topics
  11. Socio-economic Factors75▲ 19×2 topics
  12. Biodiversity74▲ 2.8×32 topics
  13. Child Mortality74▲ 29×1 topic
  14. Health Systems74▲ 29×1 topic
  15. Smallholder Farmers73▲ 9.8×6 topics
  16. Child Development72▲ 5.0×8 topics
  17. Social Networks70▲ 7.2×9 topics
  18. Food Security65▲ 3.4×20 topics
  19. Biodiversity Conservation65▲ 4.8×16 topics
  20. Rural Development64▲ 5.3×15 topics
  21. Global Burden62▲ 3.2×12 topics
  22. Poverty Reduction62▲ 13×5 topics
  23. Vaccine60▲ 4.2×11 topics
  24. Colonialism58▲ 3.5×17 topics
  25. Genetic Diversity58▲ 3.8×20 topics
  26. Global Burden of Disease57▲ 6.5×4 topics
  27. Mortality Rates53▲ 16×2 topics
  28. Technology Adoption53▲ 8.0×6 topics
  29. Maternal and Child Undernutrition52▲ 18×1 topic
  30. Water Sanitation Hygiene52▲ 18×1 topic
  31. HIV Transmission51▲ 19×2 topics
  32. Gender Inequality48▲ 9.7×6 topics
  33. Viral Load47▲ 17×2 topics
  34. Vulnerability47▲ 5.7×8 topics
  35. Agricultural Innovation44▲ 27×3 topics
  36. Preexposure Prophylaxis44▲ 26×1 topic
  37. Stigma and Discrimination44▲ 26×1 topic
  38. Livelihood Diversification44▲ 39×1 topic
  39. Market Participation44▲ 39×1 topic
  40. Global Health42▲ 7.6×6 topics

Tanzania

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Epidemiology1,175▲ 1.47×137 topics
  2. Climate Change1,053▲ 1.93×111 topics
  3. Sustainability1,002▲ 2.0×102 topics
  4. Globalization626▲ 1.58×121 topics
  5. Environmental Impact569▲ 1.66×66 topics
  6. Sustainable Development542▲ 1.72×94 topics
  7. Education539▲ 1.56×102 topics
  8. Social Capital536▲ 5.1×20 topics
  9. Poverty Reduction482▲ 18×6 topics
  10. Supply Chain Management418▲ 2.3×25 topics
  11. Economic Development413▲ 2.6×37 topics
  12. Sustainable Agriculture403▲ 6.5×16 topics
  13. Smallholder Farmers396▲ 9.3×6 topics
  14. Rural Development392▲ 5.7×18 topics
  15. Risk Management370▲ 3.9×16 topics
  16. Gender Equality364▲ 6.4×16 topics
  17. Maternal Mortality351▲ 7.8×5 topics
  18. Community Health Workers335▲ 19×2 topics
  19. Food Security334▲ 3.1×23 topics
  20. Social Networks325▲ 6.0×10 topics
  21. Gender Inequality310▲ 11×7 topics
  22. Technology Integration307▲ 4.8×11 topics
  23. Development289▲ 4.0×21 topics
  24. Health Inequalities284▲ 12×5 topics
  25. Socio-economic Factors278▲ 12×3 topics
  26. Technology Adoption276▲ 7.4×6 topics
  27. Adaptation273▲ 4.5×14 topics
  28. Child Mortality272▲ 19×1 topic
  29. Health Systems272▲ 19×1 topic
  30. Antiretroviral Therapy235▲ 7.2×6 topics
  31. Agricultural Innovation233▲ 25×2 topics
  32. Livelihood Diversification229▲ 36×1 topic
  33. Market Participation229▲ 36×1 topic
  34. Empowerment222▲ 11×6 topics
  35. Primary Education218▲ 27×2 topics
  36. Conditional Cash Transfers218▲ 31×1 topic
  37. School Subsidies218▲ 31×1 topic
  38. Poverty Alleviation215▲ 11×3 topics
  39. Financial Inclusion209▲ 20×1 topic
  40. Microfinance209▲ 20×1 topic

Size is fractional works in the topics tagged with each word; colour is the word's share of the side's work against its share of the world's. Each word links to the topic it comes from most.

How has their output grown?

Tanzania has out-published Malawi every year since 1980.

still counting2k4k6kTanzania5,567 in 2025Malawi971 in 20251990200020102020

Fractional works per year.

Their share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share, because all of science grows. Each line is a side as a percentage of every work published that year.

still counting0.050%0.10%Tanzania0.095% in 2025Malawi0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

The share of each side's works, year by year, that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. The average of all institutions is 10.0% (why not 10%).

still counting5%10%15%Malawi10.2% in 2025Tanzania8.0% in 2025200020102020

A year with under 1% of the side's peak output is left out: a rate over a handful of papers says nothing. The latest years are still being cited.

Who holds more of the world's best institutions?

A country's average quality and the number of institutions it holds at the very top can disagree, and both are worth knowing. The counts are nested: an institution in the top 50 is also in the top 100.

Malawi 05 level0 Tanzania
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 0In the top 5000
  4. 0In the top 1,0000
  5. #51Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#51

Institutions ranked on research quality, 2022-now. Elite capacity counts a country's institutions by their worldwide rank, weighted so a place at #1 counts for more than one at #480.

Which publishes more research, Malawi or Tanzania?

Tanzania publishes 5.6× as much research as Malawi in 2022-now (17k against 3k fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Malawi or Tanzania?

9.5% of Malawi's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 7.7% for Tanzania.

Is Malawi or Tanzania growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +101% against 2018-21 for Tanzania, and +46% for Malawi.

Which has more open access research, Malawi or Tanzania?

69% of Tanzania's research is free to read, against 63% of Malawi's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Malawi or Tanzania?

Malawi holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Tanzania 0; in the top 1,000 it is 0 against 0.

Which institutions lead in each country?

The highest-ranked institutions on each side on research quality, 2022-now. The percentage is each institution's own top-10% rate: the share of its works that are among the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. Every figure stands alone, so they do not add up to 100%.

Malawi

  1. 1University of Malawi9.1% top 10% · 650 works
  2. 2Kamuzu Central Hospital12.3% top 10% · 279 works
  3. 3Ministry of Education Science and Technology7.7% top 10% · 312 works
  4. 4Mzuzu University6.9% top 10% · 241 works
  5. 5Malawi University of Science and Technology6.9% top 10% · 172 works
  6. 6Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources11.0% top 10% · 243 works

Tanzania

  1. 1University of Dar es Salaam7.5% top 10% · 2.6k works
  2. 2The University of Dodoma12.5% top 10% · 1.8k works
  3. 3Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences8.3% top 10% · 928 works
  4. 4Mzumbe University8.5% top 10% · 684 works
  5. 5Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology11.1% top 10% · 566 works
  6. 6Mbeya University of Science and Technology7.2% top 10% · 439 works

The number is the rank inside the country. The track on each row is the top-10% rate; the tick is the average of all institutions, 10.0% (how it is set): teal above it, red below. The ranking is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each institution's own topics predict and adds a small reward for size, so the rates do not fall in order.

Who are the top researchers on each side?

The most cited researchers on each side, among those ranked.

Malawi

  1. 1 Amelia Catharine Crampin #138,780 worldwide 23k citations · 372 works
  2. 2 Kelias Phiri Msyamboza #162,077 worldwide 12k citations · 53 works
  3. 3 Eduard E. Zijlstra #238,180 worldwide 4.8k citations · 91 works
  4. 4 Elsbeth Robson #239,786 worldwide 3k citations · 121 works
  5. 5 Felix Khuluza #244,579 worldwide 1.6k citations · 40 works

Tanzania

  1. 1 Andrew R. Williamson #1,536 worldwide 85k citations · 325 works
  2. 2 Audax Z. P. Mabulla #25,355 worldwide 9.3k citations · 201 works
  3. 3 Susan F. Rumisha #33,455 worldwide 37k citations · 167 works
  4. 4 Gerry F. Killeen #34,603 worldwide 16k citations · 207 works
  5. 5 Fredros O. Okumu #46,417 worldwide 6.3k citations · 186 works