Foreign students following English language courses at local specialised schools declined by 8.4 per cent to 74,992 last year, the National Statistics Office said.

There were 233,834 student weeks, 3.3 per cent more than in 2012.

The majority of foreign students in Malta came from Italy, Russia and Germany. Together these markets constituted 47.6 per cent of total student visits.

The largest proportion of language students fell within the 18 to 25 age group and reached 21,958, or 29.3 per cent. 4,126 were aged 50 or over.

July was the busiest month for English language specialised schools with 19,829 students, or 26.4 per cent of the annual total. December was the least busy, with just under 1,000 student visits.

The absolute majority of students, 90.2 per cent, were Europeans. Of these, 49,804 were EU citizens, while 17,854 were from other European countries. The American and African markets experienced an increase over 2012 levels, while the number of Asian students declined.

People studying English as a foreign language amounted to 4.6 per cent of total foreign nationals visiting Malta last year.

The average duration per student stood at 3.1 weeks, up by 0.3 of a week over 2012. Increases were recorded in the number of weeks between January and July, and September. With an average of 14.5 weeks, students from the Republic of Korea had the highest average duration. These were followed by Libyan and Turkish students, with averages of 10.2 and 7.6 weeks, respectively.

Last year, teaching staff in English language specialised schools numbered 1,469. Of these, 43.5 per cent were aged between 16 and 24.

Female teaching personnel comprised 63.3 per cent of the total. The majority of teaching staff were employed on a part-time basis. Non-teaching staff amounted to 715, of whom 59 per cent were employed on a full-time basis.