Population nears 400,000 mark

The Maltese population stood at 388,867 at the end of last year, consisting of 192,934 males and 195,933 females, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office.

The total population, including the foreign element resident in the Maltese Islands, stood at 399,867, with 198,099 males and 201,768 females.

Since the last census taken in 1995, the population has gone up by 4.8 per cent for the Maltese and 5.8 per cent for the total resident population.

Over the past 10 years, the Maltese and total population experienced positive yearly increases averaging 0.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.

Population changes are the result of two main factors; the difference between births and deaths and the migration balance. The two movements may not necessarily be in the same direction but both the natural and the migration balances have been positive during the past years.

In 1993, there was a natural increase of 2,455 in the Maltese population. This represented 71 per cent of the total population growth during the year. Ten years later this went down to 830 or 43 per cent. The drop was mainly the result of low fertility rates. Mortality rates did not register any notable fluctuations and migration flows were relatively low throughout the period.

Over the last decade, the presence of foreigners within the Maltese population, although of minor importance, has increased gradually from 6,730 to 11,000 persons. At the last census held in 1995, the number of foreign residents was 7,213, of whom 3,555, or 49 per cent, were British.

Most European countries have experienced a decrease in fertility. The case of Malta is a notable example. Ten years ago, the crude birth rate was 14.11 per 1,000 of the population, but by 2003 it had dropped to 10.03, although last year there was an increase of about 100 babies over the previous year.

There has not been any change in the yearly number of marriages but the number of civil marriages has been continually on the increase. In 1993 there were 275 civil marriages out of a total of 2,476. Last year there were 2,341 marriages of which 803 were civil; more than 90 per cent of the latter were non-Maltese marrying non-Maltese.

Life expectancy has showed quite an improvement over the past years, with a noticeable drop in infant mortality rates. In 1993 the infant mortality rate was 8.2 while in 2003 it stood at 6.0. The number of deaths per year averaged 2,900 over the past decade.

The age structure of the Maltese population as at end 2003 shows that the dependency ratio stands at 45.8. The working age population added up to 266,701 persons.

The very-elderly ratio stood at 40.8 while the aging ratio stands at 59.