On Census Day, 21st of November 2021, the final usual resident population in Malta stood at 519,562, more than doubling over a century, and growing by more than 100,000 over the past 10 years, the National Statistics Office said today.
The Census found that more than one in five residents were foreign, with 115,449 non-Maltese persons residing in Malta on Census Day – an increase of more than five times in the share of foreigners since 2011.
39,287 people were residing in Gozo on Census Day, this was an increase of approximately 25% since 2011, the NSO said.
Other statistics related to Gozo include:
Zebbug in Gozo was second out of three localities on the Maltese Islands with the largest increase in population in 2021 at 79.4%.
The other two were San Pawl Il-Bahar (95.4%), and Msida (75.4%).
These three are all localities which are predominantly characterised by a high share of foreign residents, the NSO said.
Ghasri is the least densely populated locality on the Maltese Isalnds with 104 persons per square kilometre – and in fact, is the only locality which is comparable to the EU average.
Among Gozitan localities, Victoria and Fontana had the largest population densities with more than 2,000 inhabitants per square kilometre in each locality.
Gozitan residents were slightly older than the Maltese with average ages of 43.8 years.
It also noted that Malta remains the most densely populated country in the EU with 1,649 residents per square kilometre.
For the first time ever, the 2021 Census recorded more males than females within the Maltese population. There were 270,021 men (52 per cent of the population) and 249,541 women in Malta, resulting in a sex ratio of 924 females per 1,000 males.
The Report also found that the average age of the population was 41.7 years, and Gozitan residents were slightly older than the Maltese with average ages of 43.8 years and 41.5 years respectively.
Other findings on a national basis include:
Just less than 90 per cent of residents were Caucasian, and a further 5.2% were Asian. A total of 6,101 persons (1.2%) had more than one racial origin.
A total of 14,822 persons immigrated to Malta in the year prior to the Census – more than three times the figure reported in 2011. More than half of these immigrants were non-EU citizens (including British) and 4,765 were citizens from countries outside of Europe.
The majority of the population aged 1 year and over did not internally migrate in the year prior to the Census (93.5%), while 18,558 persons changed their residence within the country.
When asked about their religious affiliation, a total of 373,304 residents aged 15 and over (or 82.6%) identified themselves as Roman Catholic.
A total of 17,454 persons reported that they belong to Islam, followed by 16,457 persons who identified themselves with the Orthodox religion. Another 23,243 stated that they did not have any religious affiliation.
The National Statistics Office has today started to publish the official results of the Census of Population and Housing 2021 following the preliminary report that was published last August. [1]
The publishing of the official results [2] of this study will be divided into three volumes, the NSO said.
File photograph: Gozo News/Alain Salvary