The female population in Malta and Gozo at the end of 2016 stood at 228,634, or 49.7% of the population, the National Statistics Office said in a statement issued on the occasion of Women’s Day, being celebrated on Thursday.
That same year, female live births numbered 2,111 compared to 2,365 male live births. Life expectancy for females at birth stood at 84.4 years while for males it was 80.6 years.
The number of female students enrolled in post-secondary and tertiary education institutions during academic year 2015-2016 stood at 12,645 or 52.4% of total enrolments. Among those enrolled in the 15-24 age bracket, 51.9% were females. Moreover, 59.2% of the students who graduated at the tertiary level were females.
In 2017, 95.3% of women used the internet on a daily basis against 92.6% of men. Both women and men went online mainly for communication and access to information.
Figures from the Labour Force Survey showed that the highest female employment rate (64%) was in the 25-54 age bracket. On average, an employed female worked around 35 hours per week, six hours less than her male counterpart.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate for women was nearly one percentage point higher than that for men, at 5%. The highest unemployment rate (10.9%) was among females aged between 15 and 24.
Between 2014 and 2016, the overall gender pay gap increased by 0.4 percentage points showing that by 2016, men were paid 11% more than women. The gap is highest for the 65+ cohort (21%) followed by the 35-44 cohort (13.1%). Between 2014 and 2016, an overall drop of 4.3 percentage points was recorded in the cohort 35-64.
According to the NSO, women were still at higher risk of poverty or social exclusion. But in 2016 there were an estimated 42,587 women at risk of poverty or social exclusion compared to 51,298 in 2014.
In 2014 and 2015, women in the 0-17 age group were the most at risk of poverty or social exclusion. By 2016, there was a shift whereby women in the 65+ cohort were the most vulnerable and those who were separated or widowed were at a higher risk of poverty or social exclusion.
The Household Budgetary Survey for 2015 showed that out of the 164,815 households, 36% breadwinners were women. Households with a male breadwinner, on average spent €4,496 more than households with a female head.
The latter tended to spend more on housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Their male counterparts were more likely to spend a larger proportion of their household expenditure on transport, restaurants and hotels.