Malta shows slowest ageing rate in the EU, Eurostat data shows

Malta remains one of Europe’s demographic outliers, with new figures from Eurostat showing it combines a relatively young population structure with one of the slowest ageing rates in the European Union (EU).

Malta’s median age fell slightly from 40.4 years in 2015 to 40.0 years in 2025, making it — together with Germany — the only EU country where the median age declined. Across the European Union, the median rose from 42.8 to 44.9 years, highlighting a broad continental trend towards older populations.

Median ages vary widely across the bloc, ranging from 39.6 years in Ireland to 49.1 years in Italy. The fastest ageing since 2015 was recorded in Slovakia and Cyprus (both +4 years), followed by Greece and Poland (+3.8 each) and Portugal (+3.7).

Despite its relatively low median age, Malta has one of the lowest shares of children (under 14 years of age) in the EU, at 12.1% of the population in 2025, compared with highs of 18.5% in Ireland and 16.8% in Sweden. The percentage of under 14-year-olds in Malta has dropped from 14.1% in 2015 to 12.1% a decade later. Only Italy reports a smaller percentage of children (11.9%).

However, its population is ageing far more slowly: the share of residents aged 65+ rose by just 0.4 percentage points between 2015 and 2025, compared with an EU average increase of 2.9 points.

This is because Malta also reports the highest percentage of people aged between 15 and 64 years of age, with their percentage increasing from 67.6% in 2015 to 69.5% in 2025. This means that Malta has the highest percentage of people in this age bracket in the EU.

This dynamic is reflected in Malta’s dependency ratios.

The country recorded the lowest total age dependency ratio in the EU in 2025, at 44.0%, and an old-age dependency ratio of 26.6%, equivalent to nearly five working-age people for every resident aged 65 or over.

Eurostat data indicate that migration plays a key role in shaping this profile.

Across the EU, foreign-born residents are younger on average than native-born populations, with median ages of 43.1 and 45.2 years respectively — a gap that can reduce a country’s overall median age where inward migration is strong. NSO statistics show that the median age of foreign residents in Malta was about 32 years, compared with 43 years for Maltese residents in 2023 — a gap of roughly 10 years.

Across Europe, populations are ageing due to longer life expectancy and persistently low birth rates. In Malta, however, migration has a rejuvenating effect, keeping the population relatively young and setting it apart from a continent that is otherwise steadily growing older, even if it also brings challenges from higher population density and infrastructural pressures.