Most Maltese households consist of two adults with children, a Eurostat study shows. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

As the post-war baby boom era nears its end and the new generation opts for smaller families, Malta’s population is expected to contract.

Statistics issued by Eurostat show that the population reached almost 418,000 in 2011 and is expected to fall to 415,000 by the end of the decade, dipping to 387,000 in 2060.

The island is still experiencing some demographic firsts compared with the rest of the EU.

According to Eurostat, Malta had the largest ‘families’ in 2011, with an average of 2.9 people living in every household. The EU average stood at 2.4 per household, with the smallest in Sweden where the average household consists of fewer than two people (1.9).

Among the 140,500 Maltese households, 24.6 per cent consist of two adults with children, followed by 23.9 per cent made up of three adults – typically two parents and a child over 18 still living with them.

On the other hand, only 2.5 per cent of Maltese households consist of single parents and 17.5 per cent of people living alone.

The island also fares among the best in the EU in terms of life expectancy.

The island also fares among the best in terms of life expectancy

A child born in 2011 was expected to live for 80.9 years , better than the EU average of 80.4 years. If that child happens to be a girl, she is expected to live up to 83.2 years.

The EU member states with a better life expectancy at birth are the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and the UK.

The data indicate a shift in the number of births on the island, reflecting a different lifestyle compared with a few years ago.

In 1991, live births averaged at 2.04 per woman, the rate falling to 1.49 just 20 years later.

Women are also giving birth to their first child at an older age: from an average age of 28.8 years in 1991 to almost 30 in 2011.

The number of births outside marriage amounted to 22.7 per cent of all births in 2011, still much lower than the rest of the EU where children out of wedlock averaged 39.2 per cent.

Malta also tops the asylum list calculated on a per capita basis, with 1,890 applications received by the authorities in 2011. While on average there were 602 asylum applications per million inhabitants in the EU, the overall total reached 4,542 per million in the same year.