Census 2021: Maltese citizens overwhelmingly identify as Roman Catholics

Maltese citizens still overwhelmingly identify themselves as Roman Catholics, the 2021 Census reveals.

The Census shows that 96.4% of Maltese citizens aged 15 and over identify with Roman Catholicism although the exercise did not ask whether they are practicing Catholics.

This was the first time that the Census asked about religious affiliation and the question was only put to those aged 15 and over. Malta’s overall resident population for this cohort of people stood at 451,746 but almost one fourth are foreigners.

Of the 347,577 Maltese citizens, 335,054 identify as Roman Catholics with the second largest cohort being that which pertains to no religious affiliation at 7,254, or 2.1%.

This level of identification among citizens of a country with the Roman Catholic religion is possibly one of the highest in the world, apart from the Vatican.

Only 1,746 Maltese citizens identify with Islam, which equates to 0.5%, while 1,346, or 0.4%, identify with Christian Orthodoxy.

The numbers change radically when looking at the 104,169 non-Maltese residents aged 15 and over.

Of these, 38,250 or 36.7%, identify with Roman Catholicism, while 15,708, or 15.1%, identify with Islam. Another 15,111, or 14.5%, identify as Christian Orthodox and 6,276, or 6%, consider themselves adherents of Hinduism.

Among foreigners, 15,989 have no religious affiliation, equating to 15.3% of all non-Maltese.

Overall findings

The Census findings for the whole population (Maltese and non-Maltese) show that 82.6%, or 373,304, identify with Roman Catholicism, 3.9% (17,454) with Islam, 3.6% (16,457) with Christian Orthodoxy, and 1.4% (6,411) with Hinduism.

The Church of England has 5,706 adherents, while 4,516 identify with Protestantism. 23,243 people have no religious affiliation, equating to 5.1% of residents aged 15 and over.

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