Cottonera: land of the single mother

Isla emerges as the town with the highest proportion of births to single mothers in health ministry statistics laid in parliament this week, with 9 out of 12 births registered there between January and July this year occurring to single mothers.

Isla, Birgu, Santa Lucija, Valletta, Bormla, Marsa and Pembroke were the only localities in Malta where more than 50% of births occurred to single mothers. Overall 528 of 2,221 newborns (23.7%) in the first six months of the year were born to single mothers.

But the highest incidence of births to single mothers is registered in the South Harbour region (which includes Cottonera and neighbouring towns like Paola and Fgura) where 35.1% of all births occurred to single mums. One notable exception to the regional trend is Tarxien, where only 13% of new babies were born to single mums.

On the other hand the lowest rate is registered in Gozo where births to single mums represented only 24 out of 168 births (14.3% of the total number of births).

The second highest rate of births to single mums was registered in the north harbour region which is home to very different realities. While localities in Swieqi, Sliema and Birkirkara have less than 20% of babies born to single mums, in localities like Gzira, Hamrun, San Gwann and Pembroke more than 30% were born to single mums. The south-eastern region registers a far lower number of births to single mums than the neighbouring south harbour region.

The lowest rate is registered in Marsaskala where only 10 out of 74 (13.5%) new babies were born to a single mother. The highest rate in this region was registered in Zejtun were 24 out 77 (31%) new babies in this town were registered as having a single mum.

Even lower rates of births to single mums are registered in the western and northern regions. In the northern region the only locality to defy the trend in Saint Paul’s Bay where 31% of all births occur to single mothers. Full statistics in MaltaToday's digital print edition