In 2009 the population of Malta totalled 413,609, and of these 84,696 were over the age of 60 – amounting to 20.5 per cent of the entire population.

This percentage is expected to rise to 26.8 per cent as population is projected to grow to 424,000 in 2025, including 113,600 people aged over 60 (NSO Demographic Review 2007, page 17).

Life expectancy in 2009 was 77.2 years for men and 81.8 for women.

Awareness about population aging on a world level was first raised in the United Nations General Assembly of 1969 by the Maltese government.

This led to the adoption of a resolution urging governments to give priority to this issue.

Malta pursued the matter consistently and in the first World Assembly on Ageing held in Vienna in 1982, Malta had the honour to chair the main committee of the assembly. The Vienna Plan of Action on Ageing presented the world at large with a plan to promote the well-being of older people.

Twenty years later, in April 2002, the second World Assembly on Ageing was held in Madrid, and among other things it was agreed that the challenges arising from demographic growth should release the ‘unused potential’ of older people through ‘active ageing’ in all spheres.

The elderly have a most valid contribution to give not only to their own family but also to their community, to their own country, to the European Union and to the world at large.

All this can be achieved through solidarity between generations.