There’s only one secret to marketing and that is targeting. Yet marketers and ad people in Malta and Gozo are not changing their formulas eben though Malta is changing.
We ended 2025 with an estimated population of 588,254, up 2.4 per cent on the previous year, according to the National Statistics Office’s World Population Day release.
The increase was driven largely by migration, with net migration (immigration minus emigration) amounting to 13,906 people in 2025. Non-EU citizens accounted for 78.1 per cent of total net migrants, if which 62.5 per cent are male.
Births, meanwhile, dipped slightly. Resident live births fell by 0.8 per cent when compared to the previous year, while resident deaths increased by 1.4 per cent. Of the 4,240 resident deaths registered in 2025, 71.5 per cent were people aged 75 and over. This shift saw Malta’s natural increase – the difference between births and deaths – drop from 193 in 2024 to just 98 in 2025, a decline of 49.2 per cent.
At the end of 2025, males accounted for 53.3 per cent of the total resident population.
Men outnumbered women across all broad age groups up to 69, while women formed the majority among those aged 70 and over. The difference became particularly marked in the oldest age groups, with women outnumbering men by almost two to one among those aged 85 and over.
Children and young people under 18 made up 14.3 per cent of the population, while those aged 65 and over accounted for 18.4 per cent. Malta and Gozo were also home to 4,005 people aged 90 and over, of whom 2,758 were women and 1,247 were men.
Citizenship figures tell another part of the story.
Maltese citizens made up 68.9 per cent of the resident population, while non-Maltese citizens accounted for 31.1 per cent. READ THAT AGAIN. It frustrates me greatly that marketers are ignoring this growing sector!
The Maltese population was relatively evenly spread across the 30 to 79 age groups, while the non-Maltese population was concentrated heavily in working age groups. Among non-Maltese residents, 22.1 per cent were aged 20 to 29, 34.8 per cent were aged 30 to 39, and 18.7 per cent were aged 40 to 49.
The Western district recorded the highest share of Maltese citizens, at 85.4 per cent, followed by the Southern Harbour district at 79.3 per cent and the South Eastern district at 79.2 per cent. The Northern Harbour and Northern districts had the highest shares of foreign citizens, at 43.9 per cent and 38.8 per cent respectively. Do you see a difference in your community?
Population density remained highest in the central and harbour areas. Sliema topped the list with 18,186 people per square kilometre, followed by Pietà with 16,346 and Isla/Senglea with 15,060.
The lowest population densities were recorded in Għasri, with 104 people per square kilometre, San Lawrenz with 226, and of course, Mdina with 227.
Published ahead of World Population Day on July 11th, the figures offer a snapshot of a country still growing, but also changing in shape: older, more urban, increasingly diverse, and ever more dependent on migration to sustain its population rise.
Source used: NSO Malta, World Population Day: 11 July 2026, released 9 July 2026. (nso.gov.mt)
