NSO Malta | Contrasting population dynamics

Article: Population and Migration Statistics

Published on: 9 September 2024

Contrasting population dynamics

The age and sex structure of the Maltese and foreign population in 2023

In 2023, the foreign population stood at 158,368, accounting for 28.1% of the total population in Malta. While the foreign population grew by 15.3% between 2022 and 2023, the Maltese population only grew by 0.1% from 404,675 to 405,075 in 2023. There are stark contrasts in the age and sex structure of the Maltese and foreign population at the end of 2023 as depicted by the population pyramids for each group.

Chart 1: Population pyramid for the Maltese population as at end 2023

Chart 2: Population pyramid for the foreign population as at end 2023

While the sex distribution in the Maltese population is nearly equal, at 49.8% males and 50.2% females, among the foreign population, males accounted for 61.1% of the population compared to 38.9% females. The foreign population is also younger. The median age for the foreign population was 32 years, while among the Maltese population it was more than 10 years higher at 43.

The differences between the age structure of the foreign and Maltese population are further highlighted by the old-age dependency ratio. The old age dependency ratio is the number of individuals aged 65 or older per 100 people of working age, defined as those aged between 20 to 64 years old. The ratio for the Maltese population has increased annually since 2012 from 28.2 to 41.8 in 2023. On the other hand, the ratio for the foreign population has declined annually from 17.0 in 2012 to 4.4 in 2023. The ratio for the total has remained relatively stable since 2012, likely due to the influence of the declining ratio among the foreign cohort.

Chart 3: Old-age dependency ratio (OADR)

Reference period: 2012 - 2023

Table 1: End of year population estimates by age, district, sex and citizenship 2012-2023

Further detailed tables on the total population are available under the selected indicators section in the Population theme.

For more information on the methodology and concepts applied to the estimation of the population, please refer to our metadata page.