Malta home to 82,000 children in 2022

Malta was home to almost 82,000 children by the end of 2022, 5,000 more than 11 years earlier, the National Statistics Office said on Monday.

The difference is attributable to a seven-fold increase in foreign children that compensated for a decline of 7,000 Maltese children during the decade.

The figures released to coincide with World Children’s Day celebrated today, focus on children between the ages of 0 and 17.

At the end of 2022, there were 81,963 children, making up 15.1% of the population. Of these, 82.1% were Maltese children (67,272) and 17.9% were foreign (14,691). Malta’s total population stood at 542,051 by December 2022, which was 100,000 more than 2011.

Source: NSO

A regional breakdown shows that the South-eastern Region had the highest percentage of children at 17% when compared to the region’s total population. This was followed by the Western Region with 16.2% and the Northern Region with 16%.

Gozo and the Southern Harbour regions were in line the national ratio at 15.1% and 15% respectively of their populations being children, while the Northern Harbour Region had the lowest ratio at 13.4%.

The NSO figures show that there were 33,120 boys and 30,968 girls aged between 3 and 17 enrolled in formal education during the scholastic year 2021-2022.