Malta’s population spikes by 5,600 in a year

Malta’s population grew by a whopping 5,600 throughout 2016, new statistics have indicated.

The Eurostat figures show that Malta’s official population now stands at around 440,400, which means that it increased at a rate of 13.8% per 1000 residents from last year. Indeed, it grew at the third largest rate out of all EU countries, behind only Luxembourg and Sweden.

The increase was registered both thanks to net migration and thanks to the birth rate surpassing the death rate. 4,476 babies were born in Malta last year, while 3,342 people died.

The statistics show that while populations in Western European countries tended to increase, those in Eastern European ones dropped. Indeed, the largest decrease was recorded in Lithuania (-14.2%), followed by Latvia (-9.6%), Croatia (-8.7%), Bulgaria (-7.3%), and Romania (-6.2%).