The number of foreign students who visited Malta to learn English rose by 3.4 per cent last year.

Half of the 77,550 students of English as a foreign language came from Italy, Germany and Russia, according to the National Office of Statistics.

The biggest proportion, 19,613, were aged between 18 and 25. Only 4,250 were over 50 years old. The majority – 58 per cent – were female. English language students accounted for 4.4 per cent of the foreign nationals who visited Malta last year, staying for 3.2 weeks on average. The majority stayed with host families.

A total of 1,414 persons were employed as teachers in English language schools and worked mainly on a part-time basis.