Population growth has the nation worried

SUMMARY

Concern about the foreign influx continues to be a main concern but is now framed in terms of population pressures, a MaltaToday survey shows.

Overpopulation (22.3%) has overtaken foreign workers (9.9%) as the country’s top concern, compared with a year ago. In 2024, foreign workers (22.4%) topped the list of concerns with only 8.1% mentioning population growth.

A MaltaToday survey of 741 respondents also shows that PN voters and non-voters prioritise overpopulation as their main concern, while PL voters identify traffic.

And while inflation is the top concern among the elderly, younger respondents worry most about traffic. Inflation and the environment rank higher among women than among men. In Gozo, concern on overdevelopment and construction rank second after population growth.

Overpopulation is top national concern

A year ago, concern about foreigners working in Malta was the country’s top worry. Roll forward 12 months and while concern about foreign workers has dropped by 12.5 points, concern about overpopulation has increased by a staggering 14.2 points.

The October MaltaToday survey on concerns puts overpopulation as the top issue of concern with 22.3%, followed closely by traffic at 20.3%.

The shift from ‘foreign workers’ to ‘overpopulation’ as the top concern suggests that the Maltese are now more concerned about the impact of a larger population on infrastructure, the environment and public services than about the sheer presence of foreigners in Malta.

With foreign workers contributing to the rapid increase in population, the shift in language used by respondents to describe their topmost concern could also suggest fatigue with tourism that exacerbates the situation.

This result represents the third shift in how the Maltese articulate their concern about the increased number of foreigners living and working in Malta. Before 2019, irregular migration was the specific focus of popular concerns related to the presence of foreigners. This subsequently shifted to concern about foreign workers following a drop in boat arrivals. Now, this concern appears to be more directed towards population growth.

The MaltaToday survey polled 741 respondents and has a margin of error of +/-3.6 percentage points. Respondents were asked to state the greatest problem facing the country and they could only provide one unprompted answer.

But despite this shift from concern about foreigners taking jobs in Malta to a more generic concern about population growth, other pressures still rank high on the list of national concerns, as was the case last year.

Some of the main concerns stem from Malta’s economic growth model—apart from overpopulation, the survey lists traffic (20.3%), foreign workers (9.9%), construction (6.9%) and the environment (5.8%).

Inflation ranks third with 13.4%, indicating that it remains a problem for a significant part of the population. Corruption ranks fifth with 8.2% identifying it as a main concern.

Overall, the survey shows the same level of concern about traffic as last year, a clear indication that the situation on the ground has remained the same. Traffic also ranked a close second in last year’s survey.

A slight dip in concern about construction (-2.6 points) has been accompanied by a rise in concern about the environment in general (+3 points).

The only bread-and-butter issue to emerge in the list of the top seven concerns is inflation, which registers an increase of 3.4 points.

Concern about corruption has declined slightly by 1.3 points and remains mostly confined among current PN voters and a portion of non-voters.

PL voters concerned about traffic, PN voters about population

While overpopulation (26.5%) is now the top concern among PN voters, PL voters are more concerned about traffic (28.8%).

Concern about traffic drops to 12.2% among PN voters, an indication that these voters have more pressing concerns. On the other hand, concern about overpopulation drops to 15.2% among PL voters.

Concern about foreign workers remains slightly higher among PL voters (11.2%) than among PN voters (9%).

PN voters also tend to be slightly more worried about construction (7.4%) compared to PL voters (5.4%). But the latter are more concerned about the environment in general (7.6%) than PN voters (5%).

A more striking difference between PN and PL voters is in how corruption ranks among their concerns. While only 2.4% of PL voters consider corruption as their top worry, the percentage rises to 14.3% among PN voters. Among PN voters, corruption ranks third after overpopulation and inflation.

However, concern about inflation is only three points higher among PN respondents than among PL voters (13.2%).

A profile of non-voters

The survey suggests that non-voters are more in sync with PN voters regarding concern about the demographic pressures facing the country. Moreover, they are more likely to mention corruption as a top issue than Labour voters, but less so compared to PN voters.

In fact, concern about overpopulation peaks at 30.4% among non-voters, followed by concern about traffic (18.2%), inflation (10.9%), foreign workers (10.8%), corruption (8.7%), construction (4.8%), low income (2.4%) and the environment (2.1%).

Surprisingly, both PN and PL voters expressed greater concern about overdevelopment and the environment than non-voters. Non-voters also registered a slightly lower level of concern about inflation than both PL and PN voters.

Traffic is top concern of younger voters

The survey shows higher concern about traffic (24%) and overdevelopment (10%) among those aged between 16 and 35.

Traffic is a top concern for Labour voters and the young

In fact, concern about traffic emerges as the top concern of this age group, while that about construction ranks fourth.

Concern about overpopulation is still high (21.6%) but lower than among 36- to 50-year-olds, where it peaks at 29.9%. Concern about overpopulation is lowest among those aged over 65 years (16.9%).

In an indication that the elderly are still feeling hard-pressed by rising prices, inflation emerges as the top concern among those over 65 years old (22.3%).

The survey also suggests that men (26.3%) are more likely to consider overpopulation as a top problem than women (18.5%).

In contrast, women (16.6%) are more likely to consider inflation as a top concern than men (10.1%). Concern about traffic is also slightly higher among men (22%) than women (18.7%).

Concern about the environment is also higher among women (7.4%) than among men (4%), while that about overdevelopment is similar.

A breakdown by education also suggests higher concern about construction (10%) and the environment (7.7%) among the tertiary educated. But even among this group, concern about overpopulation is the highest (27.4%), followed by concern about traffic (17%) and corruption (12.5%).

Concern about inflation tops the worries of the primary educated, who are mostly pensioners (33.5%).

Among those with a secondary education, the top concern is traffic (22.6%), but this is only slightly higher than concern about population (22.1%). Similarly, among the post-secondary educated, concern about overpopulation is less than one point higher than that about traffic.

Concern about overdevelopment highest in Gozo

A regional breakdown of the survey shows that concern about construction (16.4%) is the second most pressing concern in Gozo after overpopulation (24.9%).

The survey shows that concern about overpopulation tops the list of concerns in all regions except the South-east, where the top concern is traffic (23.2%) and concern about foreigners (13%) drops to third place.

Concern about inflation is also highest in the South-east (16.5%), Gozo (16.1%) and the North Harbour (14.4%).

Concern about corruption is notably higher in the Northern region (14.4%), where it emerges as the third top concern after overpopulation (26%) and traffic (19.5%).

The Northern region, which includes population hotspots like St Paul’s Bay, registers the highest level of concern about overpopulation. It is worth noting that regional and demographic breakdowns are only indicative due to the substantially higher margin of error when respondents are split into smaller subsets.