The number of foreigners who came to Malta to learn English last year rose by almost a third to 86,593 when compared to 2006.

The majority of these students were between 16 and 17 years old, with 42.6 percent of the students in this age group originating from Italy and France. All age groups, with the exception of the '15 and under' and '30 and over', registered increases over the previous year.

Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Russia accounted for 70.7 percent of the total incoming students.

The NSO, which issued the statistics, said that seven out of every 100 incoming tourists were language students last year.

The students aged between 21 and 25 stayed here for the longest time, with an average length of stay of 3.2 weeks per student.

There were 1,257 teachers in language schools last year, of whom 91.9 percent were part-timers.