Age distribution

Since 2000, the shift in the age composition towards an older population continued to materialise. In fact, the average age of the Maltese population increased from 38.5 in 2005 to 40.5 in 2011. This resulted from the increase in the number of persons aged 55 and over, together with a decrease in the number of persons under 25 years of age. The average in Gozo and Comino (41.6 years) was higher than that observed for Malta. Persons aged 65 and over more represent 16.3% of the total population in 2011, compared to 13.7% in 2005. In contrast, persons aged 14 and under make up 14.8% of the population in 2011, compared to 17.2% in 2005.^[6]

Migrant background and foreign nationality

Foreign nationals in Malta

As of 2016 and 2017, the numbers of selected groups of resident foreign nationals (non-naturalized residents) in Malta were as follows:

This list does not include foreign nationals who acquired Maltese nationality and foreign nationals without resident status.

Rank	Nationality	Population (2016)[7][8]	Population (2017)[9][8]
	Total	30,000+
	EU nationals	22,000+
1	Italy	5,180
2	United Kingdom	3,985
3	Libya		3,622
4	Serbia		2,757
5	Philippines		2,407
6	Bulgaria	2,044
7	Russia		2,027
8	Somalia		1,845
9	Hungary	1,308
10	Syria		1,289
11	Romania	1,262
12	Spain	1,119
13	China		1,090
14	Sweden	1,085
15	Eritrea		1,057
16	Germany	991
17	Ukraine		896
18	France	879
19	India		819
20	Poland	719
21	Netherlands	466
22	Greece	379
23	Slovakia	338
24	Austria	332
25	Finland	321
26	Portugal	297
27	Czech Republic	296
28	Ireland	281
29	Latvia	276
30	Lithuania	213
31	Denmark	204
32	Belgium	188
33	Estonia	120
34	Slovenia	106
35	Croatia	100
	Other non-EU nationals	400+

Emigration

Child Migrants' Memorial at the Valletta Waterfront, commemorating the 310 Maltese child migrants who travelled to Australia between 1950 and 1965.

Malta has long been a country of emigration, with big Maltese communities in English-speaking countries abroad. Mass emigration picked up in the 19th century, reaching its peak in the decades after World War II.

In the nineteenth century, most migration from Malta was to North Africa and the Middle East (particularly Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt), although rates of return migration to Malta were high.^[10] Nonetheless, Maltese communities formed in these regions. By 1900, for example, British consular estimates suggest that there were 15,326 Maltese in Tunisia.^[11] There is little trace left of the Maltese communities in North Africa, most of them having been displaced, after the rise of independence movements, to places like Marseille, the United Kingdom or Australia.

After World War II, Malta's Emigration Department would assist emigrants with the cost of their travel. Between 1948 and 1967, 30 per cent of the population emigrated.^[10] Between 1946 and the late 1970s, over 140,000 people left Malta on the assisted passage scheme, with 57.6 per cent migrating to Australia, 22 per cent to the UK, 13 per cent to Canada and 7 per cent to the United States.^[12] (See also Maltese Australians; Maltese people in the United Kingdom)

46,998 Maltese-born residents were recorded by the 2001 Australian Census, 30,178 by the 2001 UK Census, 9,525 by the 2001 Canadian Census and 9,080 by the 2000 United States Census.^[13]

Emigration dropped dramatically after the mid-1970s and has since ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance. However, since Malta joined the EU in 2004 expatriate communities emerged in a number of European countries particularly in Belgium and Luxembourg. At the same time, Malta is becoming more and more attractive for communities of immigrants, both from Western and Northern Europe (Italians, British) and from Eastern Europe (Serbians).

Immigration

Most of the foreign community in Malta, predominantly active or retired British nationals and their dependents, is centred on Sliema and surrounding modern suburbs. Other smaller foreign groups include Italians, French, and Lebanese, many of whom have assimilated into the Maltese nation over the decades.^[14]

Since the late 20th century, Malta has become a transit country for migration routes from Africa towards Europe.^[15] As a member of the European Union and of the Schengen agreement, Malta is bound by the Dublin Regulation to process all claims for asylum by those asylum seekers that enter EU territory for the first time in Malta.^[16]

Irregular migrants (formal Maltese: immigranti irregolari, informal: klandestini) who land in Malta are subject to a compulsory detention policy, being held in several camps organised by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM), including those near Ħal Far and Ħal Safi. The compulsory detention policy has been denounced by several NGOs, and in July 2010, the European Court of Human Rights found that Malta's detention of migrants was arbitrary, lacking in adequate procedures to challenge detention, and in breach of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.^[17][18]

Very few migrants arrived in Malta in 2015, despite the fact that the rest Europe was experiencing a migrant crisis. Most migrants who were rescued between Libya and Malta were taken to Italy, and some refused to be brought to Malta.^[19]

Structure of the population

Note: Crude migration change (per 1000) is a trend analysis, an extrapolation based average population change (current year minus previous) minus natural change of the current year (see table vital statistics). As average population is an estimate of the population in the middle of the year and not end of the year.