Large families prevail in rural and affluent towns

Valletta has the highest percentage of single-person households while Mtarfa, on the other end of the spectrum, is hosting the highest percentage of households composed of five persons or more.

This emerges from a recently published report on the Maltese national census conducted in 2011.

Malta’s youngest locality, Mtarfa, which includes a large number of social housing projects and has a mean age of 47 years, boasts the highest percentage of households with more than five persons.

It is closely followed by rural Dingli, which has a slightly older population.

Families in Mtarfa also tend to be slightly larger than those in Pembroke, which has a similar mean age.

Pembroke and Mtarfa also have the largest number of four-person households. In these two localities four-person households account for a third of all households in the two towns.

A question of affluence?

Big families tend to prevail in both northern rural and south-eastern localities, and in affluent western towns like Iklin and Attard. 

In Iklin households with more than five members account for 13% of all households while in Attard these account for 11%. Both middle-class localities also have a large number of four-person households.

Compared to Attard, Swieqi – which has a similar mean age and social composition – boasts a higher percentage of single-person and two-person households. Only 2% of Swieqi households are composed of more than six persons, but 7.6% are composed of households of five persons.

But families tend to be smaller in younger but more urban towns like Marsaskala.

In Marsaskala, which has a mean age of 48, just higher than Mtarfa and much younger than Marsaxlokk, only 7% of households are composed of five or more members, while only 19% are composed of four members, much less than Attard and Iklin.

Working-class Fgura, which has a mean age of 52, boasts the highest percentage of three-person households in Malta, followed by Kirkop, Gudja and Attard.

On the other hand, the south-eastern fishing village of Marsaxlokk, which has a mean age of 54, boasts the highest percentage of families with more than six persons. In this town more than 4% of households have more than six members.

But the poorest working towns tend to have a higher percentage of big households.

In Bormla, which has a high mean age of 55, 3.6% of all households have more than six members. In Santa Lucija, another ageing town where the mean age is 59, 8.1% of households are composed of five members, while 3.3% have more than five members.

A question of age?

Not surprisingly, two-person households – mostly elderly couples whose children left home to set up a new family – tend to prevail in ageing localities like Ta’Xbiex, Santa Lucija and Sliema.

Valletta and Sliema, which have an ageing population, also host the highest number of single-person households. But single-person households also account for 37% of all households in Saint Paul’s Bay, which has a younger mean age of 50. Only a third of households in this seaside town are composed of three members or more. A similar pattern is observed in Zebbug in Gozo, which has a similar mean age and where 37% of households have only one member.

This suggests that Saint Paul’s Bay and Zebbug could be attracting a fair share of separated or unmarried people. Sliema, which over the past years has seen the development of a large number of apartments, could also be attracting more affluent single people.