[WATCH] ‘Typical’ Maltese female worker is a professional, earns €15,700

Parents are having less children and fewer women under the age of 30 are becoming mothers

In 2015, female workers typically earned €1,300 less than male workers
In 2015, female workers typically earned €1,300 less than male workers
NSO: trends in Malta 2016

In 2005, the ‘typical’ female worker had a secondary level education, earned €11,900 and performed clerical work. Fast-forward 10 years and the worker is now a professional, a university graduate and earns €15,700.

Compare that to the ‘typical’ male worker: in 2005, he earned €12,600 and worked as a craft or trades worker. In 2015, he was engaged in a professional job and earned €17,000.

In 2015, female students enrolled in tertiary programmes outnumbered males, making up 56.0 per cent of total students at this level.

The figures emerge from a report compiled by the National Statistics Office, looking at the Maltese trends during 2015 and 2016.

Men made up 60.9% of the employed population in 2015, although the women’s share in employment increased by 18.8 percentage points over 11 years.

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Although more babies were born during 2015 – compared to 2014 – parents are having less children. In 2015, most women who became mothers were over 30 years of age. 134 babies were born to teenage mothers.

The increase in female participation in the workforce is mainly due to the fact that more mothers are staying in, or joining the labour force.  In 11 years, the number of mothers in employment almost doubled, reaching a total of 26,612.

Malta’s population reaches 434,403

The total population in Malta grew
by slightly more than 5,000, to 434,403 inhabitants in 2015.

“It’s more likely that the next inhabitant added to the population is an immigrant than a new-born, since more immigrants arrived on our shores (12,831) than there were babies born last year
(4,325),” the NSO said in its trend report for 2016.

12,831 immigrants arrived in Malta in 2015, more than three times as much as a decade earlier. Taking into account the 8,655 emigrants, migration resulted in 4,176 more inhabitants. 1,844 of the immigrants (arriving in Malta) were asylum seekers, the majority of whom were from Libya (49 per cent) and Syria (23 per cent).

Deaths recorded in 2015 amounted to 3,442 – 172 deaths more than in 2014, resulting in a natural increase of 883 persons.

The natural population growth between 2011 and 2015 was quite stable with an average of 842 every year. However, whereas in 1995 those aged less than 15 and the 65+ accounted for 21.9 per cent and 11.4 per cent of the population respectively, in 2015 those aged less than 15 accounted for 14.2 per cent of the population and the 65+ accounted for 19.0 per cent of the population.

6,000 people tie the knot

3,002 new marriages were registered in 2015, half of which were civil. Going back 10 years, the ratio was one civil marriage for every three registered.

The number of marriages increased marginally over the last decade but the number of separations remained at the same level. Since divorce was legalised in 2011, the number of annulments has been declining steadily.

The number of separations, annulments and divorces registered in 2015 were 656, 91 and 468 respectively.

The preferred period for tying the knot is during the months of April, May and June, followed by July, August and September.

The number of foreigners choosing to get married in Malta is steadily on the increase.

Women live longer

During 2015, the life expectancy at age 0 stood at 79.7 years for males and 84 years for females.

Diseases of the circulatory system and tumours (neoplasms) were the primary causes of death in 2015. The former accounted for 38.8 per cent of the total deaths whereas the latter accounted for 27.2 per cent of the total deaths in 2015.