Maltese is widely spoken, with 93 per cent of the population above 10 years claiming to speak it well, according to the census.

Only three per cent of residents, totalling 12,000 people, could not speak Maltese at all.

But the census also confirmed the bilingual status of the country with two-thirds of the population claiming to speak English well and another 16 per cent saying they have an average level.

On the flip side, there were some 32,000 people, almost 10 per cent, who said they did not know English at all.

A quarter said they spoke Italian well while another 17 per cent said they had an average level.

This means Italian could be spoken relatively well by 42 per cent of the population.

Of particular note was the age cohort that had a relatively higher proportion of people who claimed to speak Arabic well, average or a little.

The cohort corresponded with the generation that had to study the language at secondary school when it was compulsory in the late 1980s.