Rise in literacy, language ability

While the illiteracy rate is falling, females are more literate than males, the Census of Population and Housing 2005 shows.

The gap between the sexes, however, appears to be gradually narrowing, with men, for a change, doing the catching up. In 2005, the male literacy rate stood at 91.7 cent while the female rate was 93.9 per cent, a gap of 2.2. Ten years earlier, the rate for males was 87.4 per cent while that for females was 2.6 percentage points higher.

In 2005, the overall literacy rate stood at 92.8 per cent, an improvement of 4.1 per cent over 1995. In figures, 26,121 people were illiterate compared to 36,444 in 1995, a marked drop of 28.3 per cent in the illiteracy rate.

The highest literacy rate was recorded in the Northern District with 95.5 per cent of the residents aged 10 years and over being literate. The lowest was in the Southern Harbour District where 89.8 per cent were literate.

Maltese remains the most spoken language at home, with 90.2 per cent of the population aged 10 years and over saying the native tongue was the main language of verbal communication at home. Only six per cent said it was English while three per cent used more than one language.

A total of 10.7 per cent of the population aged 10 and over, resident in the Northern District, used English as their main spoken language at home. In the Southern Harbour District, the figure stood at a mere 1.4 per cent.

While the proportion of people who can speak Maltese has remained on a par with the 1995 figures, a growth in the ability to speak other languages has been recorded. For instance, the number of those who can speak English rose by 72,197 between 1995 and 2005, the number of Italian speakers increased by even more, 87,162, the number of French speakers by 43,969 while German speakers went up by 13,303.

Those speaking Arabic increased by 8,091. The number of English speakers now only surpasses those who say they can speak Italian by just over 40,000.

The majority of people aged 15 years and over have at least a secondary level of education. A total of 8,101 reported they had no schooling, 32,164 had tertiary education while 151,844 had secondary education.

Information on participation in sport was collected among the population aged five years and over.

Over one-fifth of the population said they participated in a sporting activity with males emerging as keener participants than females - 28 per cent of males engaged in sport against 17.5 per cent of females.

A clear majority of people who practise sport participate on a non-competitive basis.

In terms of health, long-term illness and health problems were recorded among 6.5 per cent of people younger than 20 years, while long-term disability was recorded among 1.9 per cent of the same age bracket.

Among those aged 80 years and over, 54.7 per cent had long-term illnesses and health problems while 32.3 per cent stated that they have a long-term disability.