Migration biggest factor in population growth

Malta registered the third biggest population growth in the EU last year but only thanks to migrants, as their influx far outstripped the increase resulting from births.

According to figures released in Brussels yesterday, Malta had the second largest crude migration increase in the EU in 2010, more than three times the bloc’s average.

The statistics do not detail the nationalities of the migrants concerned but the majority entering Malta are known to do so illegally and originate from sub-Saharan Africa.

While the number of migrants in the EU increased by an average of 1.7 per 1000 of the population, in Malta the figure was up by 5.4 per thousand, the second highest rise in the EU after Luxembourg, which is situated in the middle of the continent and receives many French and German workers.

The trend is mirrored in the EU as a whole, where 60 per cent of the increase in population came from migration, with the largest net inflows in Luxembourg (+15.1 per cent), Malta (+5.4 per cent), Sweden (+5.3 per cent), Italy (+5.2 per cent) and Belgium (+5.1 per cent).

The island’s population last year rose by 3,200 persons to a total of 417,600. Of those, however, only 1000 – the difference between 4000 newborns and 3000 deaths – were “new” Maltese. The rest, 2,200, were newly registered migrants.

And although 4,000 newborns may seem to represent a healthy increase, Malta had one of the lowest birth rates, with only 9.6 newborns per 1,000 population. Only five EU member states had a lower natural growth record: Germany (8.3); Latvia (8.6); Hungary (9); Austria (9.4) and Portugal (9.5).

Ireland, with all its economic problems, produced most babies in the EU with a crude birth rate of 16.5 per 1,000 population.

The population of the EU grew by 1.4 million people to reach 502.5 million, with a natural increase of half a million and a net migration of 900,000. In 2010, 5.4 million children were born while 4.8 million deaths were registered.