The National Statistics Office (NSO) today launched the Preliminary Report of the Census of Population and Housing 2021.

The Report found that Malta is “by far the most densely populated country in the EU” with 1,649 persons per square kilometre compared to almost 100 persons per square kilometre for the EU.

Malta is 3.4 times more densely populated than Gozo at 1,948 persons compared to 572 persons per square kilometre respectively.

Ghasri remained the least densely populated locality in the Maltese Islands, at 104 persons per square kilometre. This is the only locality which is comparable to the EU average, the Report said.

It shows that the preliminary population head-count stands at 519,562 – an increase of 25% since 2011 or an average of 10 thousand persons per year – the highest intercensal change ever recorded to date.

Other findings include:

Increases in the population count since 2011 were recorded in every district, the most being in the Northern District (47% or 30 thousand persons) and the least in the Southern Harbour District (8.3%).

The largest three localities are San Pawl il-Bahar, Birkirkara and Mosta – accounting for 15.7% of the total population. The population in San Pawl il-Bahar almost doubled, exceeding 32 thousand inhabitants.

Sliema is the most densely populated locality with 15,167 persons per square kilometre;

More males than females were recorded for the first time in a Census, standing at 52%.

More than one in five persons is a foreigner. Foreigners are predominantly males and younger in age compared to their Maltese counterparts. Almost a third of all foreigners reside in San Pawl il-Bahar, Tas-Sliema or Msida.

The average age of the population was 41.7 years, with Gozitan residents being slightly older than the Maltese. The Maltese population is still relatively young compared to the EU.

Mdina had the oldest residents with an average age of 53.8 years, while Ix-Xghajra had the youngest residing population (37 years).

A total of 9,545 persons resided in institutions, with more than half (57.2%) residing in homes for the elderly.

The Census of Population and Housing 2021 was the 18th in a line of national censuses conducted since 1842.

The Census is a nationwide project held every 10 years and involves enumerating all residents and dwellings in Malta at a specific point in time, referred to as Census Night For the 2021 project, Census Night fell on midnight of 20/21 November, and all data collected referred to this point.

Participation in the Census is obligatory by law. The Census is governed by national and EU law – the Census Act of 1948, and the EU Census Framework Regulation (EC) No. 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on population and housing Censuses, and its implementing regulations, respectively.

The latter ensures the production of harmonised statistics from this project, which is comparable across the European Union.

The 2021 Census will go down as one very important milestone reached by the NSO, it said. For the first time, the Office started collecting Census data online. other significant development introduced in last year’s Census was spatial geocoding.

This involved the recording of the coordinates of each dwelling to eventually study census results based on a 1km2 grid. This will allow a geospatial element at the analysis stage, resulting in the compilation and publication of first-ever geospatial census results by the NSO.

The NSO stated that “all information collected during the Census is treated as strictly confidential, and the NSO applied rigorous processes to ensure that the confidentiality and anonymity of respondents was safeguarded at all times.”

A Preliminary Report was presented today, featuring the main demographic variables among which are, sex, age, nationality, regional population and population density by locality. A detailed analysis covering all population and housing variables will be released in thematic publications in due course.

To view the report please click here

Photo by Alain Salvary

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