Changing towns: a profile of Malta in 2022

Sliema: Pumped up by foreigners

Thanks to an influx of foreigners which increased from 2,095 in 2011 to a staggering 9,605 in 2021, Sliema has seen its population increasing to 19,655, the highest recorded since the 1985 census but still a far cry from the city’s post-war peak.

Back in 1948 Sliema emerged as Malta’s most populous city with a population of 24,295. Initially the home of civil servants loyal to the crown, the locality started attracting a diverse mix of middle- and upper-class residents, shopkeepers and even boasted its own working-class quarter: the so-called Lazy Corner.

But after reaching a peak in 1948, the population was in constant decline reaching an ebb of 12,906 in 1995.

Subsequently Sliema’s population started rising again amidst the first property boom in the first decade of the century, albeit at a slow rate between 1995 and 2011, only to grow at a faster rate in the past decade. Now Sliema has emerged as Malta’s fourth largest town overtaking Qormi and Zabbar, both of which were more populous in 2011.

Sliema has also seen its average age drop from 48.2 to 44.4 in the past decade. This was the largest drop in average age registered in all of Malta’s 68 localities.

But while Maltese nationals in Sliema have grown older, with their average age increasing from 49.6 in 2011 to 52.8 in 2021, the age of the average foreigner in Sliema has decreased from 40.3 to 35.6 in the same time-frame.

And while only 9% of Sliema’s residents are children under the age of 14, 23% are aged over 65.

This demographic trend suggests growing difficulties for an increasingly older native population which has to put up with increased infrastructural pressures resulting from the need to accommodate younger foreigners.

And what is actually happening is that despite the sharp increase in Sliema’s population, the number of Maltese residents in the locality is still decreasing. Compared to 2011, Sliema has 1,476 less Maltese residents and 7,510 more foreigners. The decline in the Maltese population suggests that locals are being priced out.

Moreover the city has become more claustrophobic with its density increasing from 10,551 per square kilometre in 2011, to 15,167 per sq.km today.

Valletta: Despite V18 hype the decline continues

Despite being recognised as a European capital of culture in 2018 and attracting more investment in boutique hotels and restaurants, Valletta’s population has declined further, losing 703 residents in the past decade despite an influx of 493 foreigners.

In fact, the decline is more pronounced among Maltese residents whose number has decreased from 5,570 in 2011 to just 4,486 now.

Valletta – once Malta’s largest city with a population of 22,768 in 1901 – has been in constant decline since the end of WWII, when people started migrating from the inner harbour towns.

The major decline in Valletta’s population occurred between 1967 and 1985 when the number of residents fell by 6,000. The population continued to decline from 7,262 in 1995 to 5,748 in 2011 and 5,157 now, which is the lowest ever in a national census.

This suggests that gentrification is actually sucking out the city out of its most essential component: its residential community.

Moreover, while Valletta has become more of an entertainment hub with the government recently relaxing laws restricting open-air music in residential streets, its population continues to get older, with the average age of the locality rising from 45.5 a decade ago to 47 now. This means that as the city is becoming noisier, and it is its geriatric population which suffers most. With the percentage of over 65-year-olds increasing from 25% to 27% and the percentage of children dropping to less than 10%, the city is set for further decline in the absence of policies which actively encourage residents to stay and prosper.

Marsaskala: Older but still growing

Marsaskala, Malta’s most populous seaside town along the southern coast, has kept growing mostly thanks to an influx of foreigners who now account for 28% of its population, up from just 6% a decade ago.

But its population is slowly ageing, with the average age increasing from 38 to 42 in the last decade and the percentage of children under 14 decreasing from 20% in 2011 to 15.2% now.

And in an indication that it is foreigners who are mostly fuelling the demand for increased property development in the seaside town, while the number of Maltese has increased by 1,770 the number of foreigners has increased by a staggering 3,975.

Yet unlike Sliema, Marsaskala has not seen a decline in its Maltese residents. But more five-storey blocks and over-development are taking up more open spaces.

In fact population density has increased drastically from just 887 inhabitants per sq.km in 1995 to 3,126 inhabitants per sq.km. Significantly this increase in density precedes development on rationalisation sites like the one in Zonqor, which are set to further increase the urban sprawl.

Overall the locality remains one of Malta’s fastest growing localities with its population growing from 4,770 inhabitants in 1995 to 9,346 in 2005 and to 16,804 in 2021. Incredibly back in 1985 the the southern seaside locality had less than 2,000 inhabitants. This means that Marsaskala has seen an eightfold increase in population in 25 years.

Santa Lucija: The decline of a housing experiment

One of Malta’s newest towns, established in 1961 through an article in the Government Gazette naming the area between the Tal-Barrani bypass and the Luqa bypass after a nearby 16th century chapel, is now in chronic decline.

Composed of a cluster of housing estates mostly established in the 1970s in a pleasant environment characterised by gardens and open spaces, the locality was already in decline with its population shrinking from 3,605 in 1995 to 2,970 in 2011.

In the past decade it lost a further 353 inhabitants. Moreover the average age of the locality has increased from 43.5 and 48.6 and the share of over 65s has increased from one-fifth in 2011 to 32.1% ten years later. This suggests that the original inhabitants are getting older without any signs of regeneration by new arrivals.

Santa Lucija has attracted a minimal amount of foreigners, who constitute a tiny minority of 2.5% in the locality. The Santa Lucija experience suggests that however pleasant the surroundings, localities built around social housing projects which tend to attract a population of low-income earners tend to decline over time, unlike localities which attract a more mixed social make-up.

Gharghur: From old village to suburbia?

Għargħur stands out in the locality with the highest percentage of children, in what can be an indication that middle-class people with the intention of bringing up a family are moving in an old village transformed into a suburb surrounded by the countryside. This has come at a cost, with more five-storey blocks enveloping the town’s charming historic centre.

This is also reflected in a considerable increase in density: from 1,292 persons per sq.km in 2011 to 1,856 persons per sq.km now.

Significantly the town continues attracting Maltese people. While the number of Maltese residents has increase by 754, the number of foreigners has increased by 382 in the past ten years.

The locality has consistently grown nearly doubling from just 1,991 residents in 1995 to 3,741 residents now. And with an average age of 40 and only 12% aged over 65, its population remains relatively young.

Msida: The locality with largest foreign majority

The percentage of foreigners has dramatically increased from 10% in 2011 to 55% a decade later. Moreover, while Msida’s Maltese population has decreased by 917 people, the number of foreigners living in the town has increased by a staggering 6,756 people.

This influx has also rejuvenated Msida’s population whose average age has fallen from 42 to 39 years in the past decade. But this is not reflected in the number of children being raised in the locality. In fact, the percentage of under-14s in the locality has fallen from 16% in 2011 to 14% now.

But the increase of foreigners, whose average age is lower than that of the Maltese population in general, is also reflected in a decline of over-65s from 18% to 12% in the same time-frame. Moreover, Msida’s growth coincides with that of neighbouring Pietà and Gzira, both of which have seen a dramatic increase in their population mostly thanks to the influx of foreigners.

With foreigners becoming a majority in Gżira, Msida and St Paul’s Bay, one is bound to ask whether third-country nationals should be given a vote in council election, to instil a greater bond between foreign communities and the local population.

St Paul’s Bay: Malta’s new largest town

St Paul’s Bay has overtaken Birkirkara as Malta’s largest town, with its population nearly doubling from 16,395 in 2011 to 32,042 in 2021. This represents a veritable demographic explosion when one considers that back in 1995 the town’s population amounted to just 7392, four times less then today.

The number of Maltese residents has increased by 1,496 over 2011, in an indication that the town still attracts migration from other localities, probably because of cheaper rents. But the town has also seen an increase of 14,259 in the number of foreigners who now constitute 54% of the locality’s population.

And despite being one of Malta’s largest localities in terms of space as it includes swathes of ODZ countryside, its density has now doubled from 1,128 to 2,206. This remarkable growth also raises questions on whether the town’s various ‘hamlets’ like Qawra, Xemxija and Burmarrad deserve recognition as separate towns, in a bid to make to improve governance in this sprawling town.

The increase of foreign workers living in the town is also reflected in a decrease of both children and over-65s, with the proportion of both segments declining from 15% to 12%.

Zebbug: Gozo’s own St Paul’s Bay

The Gozitan locality of Zebbug which also includes the sprawling Marsalforn seafront has seen its resident population nearly doubling from just 1,841 in 2011 to 3,303 in 2021, thanks to an increase in the locality’s foreign population from 125 to 1,371. The number of Maltese residents in Zebbug has also increased by 216.

But foreigners now account for 42% of Zebbug’s population up from 7% ten years ago. Zebbug’s growth mirrors that of Munxar which includes Xlendi, which has also seen its foreign population increase from 94 to 619.

Gozo in general has seen a sevenfold increase in the number of foreign residents; from 1,357 to 7,662 since 2011. On the other hand, the number of Maltese nationals in Gozo has grown marginally by 1,607.

26% of foreigners in Gozo live in Zebbug and Xlendi. Zebbug has now become Gozo’s sixth largest locality surpassing Sannat which was more populous ten years ago. Rabat, which has grown by 990 residents since 2011, remains Gozo’s largest town, followed by Xagħra which had already surpassed Nadur as Gozo’s second largest city in 2011. The census preceded the approval of a number of five-storey blocks enveloping towns like Qala and Xagħra, which are bound to further increase the density of the island which has already increased from 422 inhabitants per sq.km in 1995 to 572 inhabitants per sq.km in 2021.