Over 28% of children born out of wedlock

Over 28 per cent of children delivered in 2008 were born out of wedlock, a whopping increase from 1996, when the figure was below six per cent.

Comprehensive statistics published yesterday show that while the total number of births has plummeted, births to unmarried parents have shot up.

The publication of the National Statistics Office shows that 1,048 of the 3,721 births in 2008 were out of wedlock. Only 289 out of the almost 5,000 births in 1996 were to unmarried parents.

However, the percentage of children born outside a marriage and registered as having "father unknown" dropped by nearly half from 60 per cent to 33.6 per cent between 1996 and 2008.

Almost 600 unmarried girls aged 17 and under gave birth between 1999 and 2008. Another 300 teenage mothers were married.

Children 2010, the second publication of its sort, shows parents' mental health problems were the main reason why children had to be put under a care order in 2007.

A third of care orders issued in 2007 were due to parental mental health problems, followed by physical abuse, found in 24 per cent of the 17 cases. Neglect, sometimes severe, amounted to 18 per cent of the reasons for care orders.

Over 3,300 reports of physical and sexual child abuse were made to Aġenzija Appoġġ between 1993 and 2008. The agency received a total of 6,298 reports of different kinds of abuse in those 16 years, including neglect.

The biggest number of reports between 2006 and 2008 pointed at mothers as the abusers.

The figures show that, in 2008, 25 children with a substance abuse problem attended the Substance Misuse Unit either as in-patients or out-patients. Moreover, 32 children attended drug community services, 52 attended Sedqa and Caritas' drug rehabilitation programmes.

As expected, child mortality has gone down drastically in six decades, dropping to 46 in 2008 from 1,530 in 1948. Just over 40 per cent of deaths were among children in 1948 and this has dropped to just 1.4 per cent in 2008. Deaths among under two-year-olds have also dropped drastically, to 34 in 2008 from 1,246 in 1948.

Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormities amounted for a third of deaths among under five-year-olds in 2008 while conditions originating around the time of birth caused 37.5 per cent of deaths.

Although there was an overall decrease in stillbirths, the figures fluctuated between 1987 and 2007 showing no particular trend. The highest number of stillbirths, 50, was recorded in 1988 and only eight were recorded in 2005.

The publication also gives a comprehensive picture of education. Children attending non-state primary schools were the most successful in the Junior Lyceum examination. In fact, 81 per cent of children from non-government schools passed the exams, compared to 57 per cent of children attending state primary schools. The overall success rate went up to 60.8 per cent in 2008 from 51.7 per cent in 2000.

There was an increase of 2,601 in the number of students sitting for the Secondary Education certificate between 1994 and 2008, when 7,879 registered for the exams. English was the most popular subject.

Students applying for the Matriculation certificate, necessary for entry into the University, rose by over 1,000 between 1997 and 2008, although there was a drop of 200 applications between 2007 and 2008. Pure maths was the most popular advanced subject, followed by biology and physics.

Facts and figures

• While the Maltese population increased since 1931, the percentage of children has gone down. Children represented almost 52 per cent of the population in 1957, dropping to just over 20 per cent in 2008.

• There were 160 children in foster care in 2008. A total of 720 children were adopted, from Malta and abroad, between 1997 and 2008.

• The courts referred 250 cases of children to the Probation Services between 2002 and 2008, 82 per cent of the cases involving boys. Almost half involved theft, 16 per cent violence and 13 per cent were juvenile drug-related offences.

• There were 305 applications for asylum for children in 2008, almost double the 172 made in 2007.

• A total of 205 children were found to be in Malta illegally in 2008. All except one were from European countries.

• There were 2,040 children with disabilities or other conditions in mainstream education between 2000 and 2008 - 38 per cent of them had an intellectual disability, 28 per cent had emotional and behavioural difficulties and 17 per cent had communication problems.

• The government paid €43 million in child-related social benefits in 2008 - seven per cent of the total expenditure on social benefits.

• Tummy bugs were the main reason why children were admitted to hospital, with 462 needing hospitalisation in 2008, when almost 8,400 children were admitted to hospital.

• A total of 201 children were diagnosed with cancer between 1993 and 2007, with leukaemia being the most common followed by lymphoma.

• The most popular boy's name in 2008 was Matthew, followed by Luke and Maria was the most common name given to girls. Matthew, Luke and Maria, and their variants, have topped the popularity list since 2004.