The number of single unmarried parents increased by almost 1,000 between 2003 and last year, along with the cost of benefits doled out to them, figures released by the National Statistics Office show.
Last year, the government forked out over €8 million in benefits to single unmarried parents, €1.2 million more than in 2006 and almost double the benefits handed out in 2003.
Yesterday's publication - Social Protection: Malta and the EU - shows that the island spent 18 per cent of its gross domestic product on social protection benefits in 2006, lower than the 26 per cent EU25 average.
The vast majority of social benefits handed out by the government are given in cash, making Malta one of the countries that gives away most cash rather than benefits in kind.
Malta's social protection expenditure shot up by almost €180 million between 2003 and last year, to reach €974.5 million in 2007.
The island has the second highest percentage of means-tested benefits, following Ireland.
The publication, the second of its kind, shows that 57 people are given leprosy assistance and 20 people support for tuberculosis. The number of those suffering from both conditions has dropped since 2003.
However, the number of people getting a pension for the blind has gone up to 165 last year from 142 in 2003. The number of persons receiving a severe disability pension has also increased, to 338 from 277.
When it comes to health, the publication shows that the number of admissions to Malta's main hospital dropped to just over 75,500 last year - the lowest since 2003.
Statistician Clyde Caruana said last year's figures included admissions to Mater Dei Hospital.
Although the number of operations went up to almost 33,300 in 2006 from just over 28,000 in 2003, the figure fell slightly to 32,764 last year.
The popularity of health centres has dwindled over the years both in terms of patients being seen by doctors at the health centre and home visits.
Sir Paul Boffa's Oncology Department has had its workload double to almost 1,300 last year, up from 655 in 2003.
The number of items dispensed from community pharmacies grew to close to 1.6 million last year from just over one million in 2003, costing the government €58.7 million.
Those going to Sedqa for gambling support increased slightly to 35 last year from 29 in 2003. In-patients at the Detox Unit or the Substance Misuse Unit almost doubled in the five-year period, to 306 from 165.
Meanwhile, Aġenzija Appoġġ witnessed a drop in calls to its supportline - down to 19,318 last year from 26,500 in 2003 - and in the number of clients using the child protection services, down to 1,512 from 1,734.
However, the agency's initial response service saw a threefold increase in its clients and the Domestic Violence Unit experienced a slight increase in the number of clients.
Last year, workers took almost 700,000 sick days, costing employers some €36.7 million, €1.2 million less than in 2003. However, Mr Caruana said this figure was an underestimate. He explained that since the government only helped out private companies when employees took more than three sick days, this could mean they did not register all the sick days.
The number of subsidised bus tickets for pensioners went up substantially, to 4.2 million last year from 3.5 million in 2003. More pensioners bought subsidised Gozo ferry tickets, with the numbers soaring to 80,390 last year compared to 59,049 in 2005.