More than 87,000 foreign students attended English language courses in Malta in 2018, according to official statistics.

National Statistics Office figures show that the number of students last year remained almost exactly the same as in 2017, with the growth of nearly 14% that had been seen a year before slowing to a halt. 

More than a quarter of all students came from Italy, followed by Germany and France, which all together account for nearly half of those attending English language schools.

The largest share of students, around a third, were 15 years or younger, while women outnumbered men two to one.

Summer remained the busiest period, with nearly half attending courses in June, July or August.

These students represented 3.4% of all inbound tourists last year, spending a total of 215,252 weeks in Malta.

The average length of stay was two-and-a-half weeks, down a couple of days when compared to 2017.

With an average of 11 weeks in Malta, students from Colombia recorded the highest average duration, followed by South Korean and Turkish students with an average duration of 7.9 and 6.4 weeks respectively.

There were 1,028 English-language teachers in licensed schools last year, around a third of them aged between 18 and 24. Women accounted for nearly three-quarters of all teaching staff.

Non-teaching staff amounted to 721, of which just over half were employed on a full-time basis.