Elderly people make up 18.8% of total population

Elderly people make up roughly 20% of the population, statistics published by the National Statistics Office on Friday show. 

The data, issued to mark International Day of Older Persons, shows that a total of 89,517 persons in Malta are aged 65 and over, 54.6% of whom were female.  

The data shows that the number of persons aged 65 or more has steadily increased, having increased by 57.8% since 2007.

The highest concentration of older persons can be found in the southern harbour disctrict, where 22.5% of the population is elderly. Gozo and Comino are the second oldest regions with the percetage of elderly persons reaching 21.9%. 

The NSO found that life expectancy for the average 65-year-old old was 20.7 years, an increase of almost two years over a ten-year period. 

Last year the government’s total expenditure on retirement and old age pensions amounted to €535.9 million, representing a 6.6% increase over the previous year. 

The recently published Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey showed that 25.0% of persons aged 65 and over were at-risk-poverty, while 26.4% of that population were at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion.

The survey also found that 35.8% of the elderly could not afford to pay for a one-week annual holiday away from home while 16.2% could not afford to face unexpected expenses of €650 and over.

Of those who participated in the survey 9.7% said that they could not keep their home adequately warm in winter while 12.7% stated they had problems with either a leaking roof, or damp walls/floors/foundation or rot in window frames or floor. An additional 7.9% stated that their dwelling was too dark or did not have enough light.

Information provided by the Department of Active Ageing and Community Care shows that last year a total of 1,372 persons made use of the Active Aging Centres, which offer an opportunity for senior citizens to remain physically, mentally and socially active.

Education and spending

NSO also noted that while analyzing the data collected by the Household Budgetary Survey of 2015, households where the reference person was aged 65 and over, on average, spent €11,374 less than the other households. This indicates an average increase of €2,251 in 2015 when compared to 2008.

The survey also found that households spent most on food and non alcoholic beverages. However, households where the reference person was aged 65 or more, spent 8% points more on this category than the other households while spending 7% points less on transport.

As expected, households whose reference person was aged 65 or more had higher health costs than the other households.

In terms of education, during the scholastic year 2015 and 2016, there was a total of 69 persons of at least 60 years of age who were pursuing a course at tertiary level. The majority of these were males.

Travel by the elderly

According to the NSO from data collected through the Tourstat survey, last year, a total of 43,116 persons aged 65 years and over traveled abroad, mostly to destinations within the European Union: particularly Italy and the United Kingdom.

61.7% of these travelers opted to stay in collective accommodation whereas the average length of stay was of nine nights.

The average per spending cost for those aged 65 or more was of €995.

National Tourism Survey data shows that 65.4% of those aged 65 and over did not participate in tourism, with 55.2% of that population citing health reasons for non-participation 27.5% said they had no motivation to travel whereas 14% said they could not travel for financial reasons.