Pembroke has the highest ratio of university students, with almost five per cent of its population attending the University of Malta.

The town may only have 169 university students, but the number grows in significance when compared to Pembroke's relatively small population.

Attard, with a population three times larger than Pembroke, has the second highest ratio. The 383 university students that live in Attard make up almost four per cent of the town's residents.

On the other hand, the university student ratio for Cospicua, Senglea and Marsa represent just half a percentage point of their respective populations.

The information on the number of students attending the University of Malta and the towns they come from was tabled in Parliament by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.

University of Malta has 8,260 day students and 2,403 others who follow an evening course

He was replying to a parliamentary question from Opposition education spokesman George Pullicino.

The figures for the current academic year show that the University of Malta has 8,260 day students and 2,403 others who follow an evening course.

Mosta has the largest number of university students with 533 of its residents enrolled in daytime courses.

However, the number works out at 2.7 per cent of Mosta’s total population.

An exercise carried out by the Times of Malta calculated the number of day students as a percentage of their respective towns’ populations.

Regional distribution showed that Gozo and the western district had the highest student ratios, with three per cent of their respective populations attending university.

The western district (based on the National Statistics Office’s classification) is made up of Mdina, Żebbuġ, Siġġiewi, Attard, Balzan, Dingli, Iklin, Lija, Rabat and Mtarfa.

The northern district, the northern harbour region and the south-east each have two per cent of their residents attending university. The region with the lowest university student population ratio is the southern harbour district – Valletta, the Three Cities, Żabbar, Paola, Marsa and Luqa.

The patterns indicate that little has changed over the past decade, given a broadly similar analysis carried out by MaltaToday found Pembroke came out on top 10 years ago with the highest percentage of young people who continue studying after secondary education.

The 2007 exercise analysed attendance in the post-secondary institutions – the Junior College, MCAST and the Higher Secondary.

It also showed that the six least represented localities in post-secondary institutions were all in the southern harbour area.

What percentage of my town’s residents go to university?

Top ratios
Pembroke - 4.7% (169)
Attard - 3.6% (383)
Munxar - 3.4% (37)
Iklin - 3.4% (108)
Victoria - 3.3% (208)
Għasri - 3.3% (14)

Bottom
Ħamrun - 0.9% (79)
Floriana - 0.8% (16)
Vittoriosa - 0.6% (15)
Valletta - 0.6% (34)
Cospicua - 0.5% (28)
Senglea - 0.5% (14)
Marsa - 0.5% (26)

Note
Figures in brackets show the number of students from the locality attending the University of Malta. The percentage represents the locality’s university student population as a ratio of the town’s population. University attendance figures were tabled in Parliament, while the population data was taken from the NSO as at end December 2014.