Malta’s population up by 1.2%

The Maltese population at the end of 2015 stood at 434,403 - an increase of 1.2% over the previous year - the National Statistics Office (NSO) said.

In a statement marking World Population Day, the NSO said Maltese citizens accounted for 92.9% of the total population. Persons under 18 made up 17.4% of the total, while a further 19% were aged 65 and over. Of these, 2,482 persons - 1,754 females and 728 males - were over 89.

The population increase was mainly due to net migration. NSO added that live births registered during 2015 increased by 2.6% over the previous year.

During 2015, 106 babies, or 2.4%, were born to teenage mothers. On the other hand, almost two thirds of babies were born to mothers aged between 25 and 34. Of the 3,442 deaths registered during 2015, 65.1% were persons aged over 74 years.

An increase of 131 registered marriages was observed last year: an increase of 139 marriages in Malta and a decrease of 8 marriages in Gozo.

Civil marriages accounted for 49.3% of the total in 2015, an increase of 6.7% over the previous year.

From the total marriages registered, 20.4% were between spouses aged 25-29. 30.6% of grooms were between the ages of 25 and 29 while a further 29.3% were aged between 30 and 34.

Slightly more than 40% of brides were between 25 and 29 years old, 23.2% were between the ages of 30 and 34 and a further 10.8% were between 20 and 24 years of age.