Marriages surge after pandemic

Marriages surged last year following the pandemic with 2,237 being registered with Identity Malta.

The public registry saw an increase of 240 couples when compared to 2021.

Restrictions on weddings were lifted in April of last year, after measures aimed at slowing down the spread of COVID-19 saw a number of couples postpone their big day.

Spouses were instructed to host seated weddings to avoid the close-contact style of the reception party, which resulted in changes to safety measures and logistics.

There were also 31 cohabitations registered, translating to 26 less than the previous year. Only a single registration was made for a civil union.

During the past year, 3,978 new-borns were registered with the Malta Public Registry, 2,016 (50.7%) of whom were boys while 1,962 (49.3%) were girls. This reflects a decrease of 186 new-borns registered (4.7%) in 2022 when compared to the previous year.

The four most popular names registered for boys were Luca, Liam, Noah and Matteo while Mia, Emma, ​​Nina and Giulia were the four most popular names among girls.

The most popular Maltese names were Ġanni and Luċija. In total, there were 13 girls and 22 boys who were given a Maltese name with the use of Maltese diacritics. This was possible after the legal amendments pertaining to the use of Maltese fonts came into effect in 2021.

During 2022, 90% notified their newborns at the Agency's office situated in Mater Dei Hospital (totalling 3,592 babies) while 60.6% (2,314 deaths) registered a deceased person at the same office.

A total of 148 births and deaths were registered online in 2022, while only 9 deaths were registered through the postal service.

During 2022, a total of 69,042 certificates of births, marriages and deaths were issued, resulting in an increase of 654 certificates issued in 2021, of which 40,960 certificates were bought online and the remaining 28,082 were purchased in person. During the same period, 40 cohabitation certificates and 693 Free Status certificates were also issued.