Birmingham-based education campaigner has been awarded the .
The 17-year-old, who also , is the youngest person to receive the honour.
She was handed a gold medal and diploma at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, joining the ranks of laureates including Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Aung San Suu Kyi.
The teenager was jointly awarded the peace prize with Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi for her "heroic struggle" in favour of girls' education.
Shortly after the pair received their prizes a young man made his way on to the stage and unfurled what appeared to be the flag of Mexico.
He began to speak to Malala but after a few seconds he was removed by security. Malala appeared unfazed by the incident.
She began speaking out for the rights of girls at the age of 11 and came to prominence after surviving an assassination attempt in October 2012 when her calls for equal rights angered militants in her native Pakistan.
Malala gave a lecture at the ceremony in the Norwegian capital, saying: "This award is not just for me. It is for those frightened children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.
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"I am here to stand up for their rights, to raise their voice. It is not time to pity them. It is time to take action, so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education."
She added: "I tell my story not because it is unique, but because it is not. It is the story of many girls."
Malala was 15 when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in Swat District, in the country's north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
She was airlifted to Dubai and then on to Birmingham, where she was treated for life-threatening injuries at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Unable to return to her homeland due to continued threats, she is now based in Birmingham.
The Nobel Prize committee said: "Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people too can contribute to improving their own situations.
"This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education."