Gozo is now officially greener than Malta with the national census showing a higher percentage of households with solar devices and roof insulation.

The figures showed that a quarter of Gozitan households had a solar water heater installed, which far outstripped the 10 per cent of households in Malta that had the device.

The final report of the census carried out in 2011 was released yesterday by the National Statistics Office with detailed information about the population, social conditions and the state of dwellings.

Gozo also came out on top for generating energy from the sun.

The percentage of households that had photovoltaic panels standing at just below five per cent. The rate of households with PV panels in Malta was an entire percentage point less.

There were also more Gozitan households than Maltese that had roof insulation.

But a higher proportion of Maltese dwellings had wells when compared with the sister island.

The census found that on a national level nearly all occupied dwellings had a fridge and freezer, cooker, television and washing machine.

There were 71,000 unoccupied dwellings, making up 32 per cent of the housing stock.

Of these, nearly 30,000 were summer residences while 41,000 were completely vacant.

However, the NSO explained that there could be an element of double counting if the vacant dwelling belonged to more than one family, such as siblings who inherited their parents’ house.

Two out of three homes ‘in good repair’

The highest occupancy rates were recorded in Santa Luċija (95 per cent), Pembroke (92 per cent) and Mtarfa (90 per cent).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Żebbuġ in Gozo had the lowest occupancy rate with only 19 per cent of dwellings inhabited. However, the locality also includes Marsalforn, where a number of apartments are used as summer residences.

Munxar, which includes the summer resort of Xlendi, had an occupancy rate of 27 per cent while St Paul’s Bay had occupied the third bottom rung with 42 per cent of households there being occupied.

The census also recorded householders’ perception of the state of repair their dwelling was in. Two out of three houses were in a good state of repair.

But a clear dividing line was drawn between households in the northern harbour district – which includes Sliema, Swieqi, Birkirkara and Qormi – and the southern harbour area – the Three Cities, Valletta and Żabbar – with houses in the former being in the best state of repair as opposed to the latter.