Malta sees EU’s largest population increase, by far, over 2018

Country’s population now verging on half a million

Malta last year saw the European Union’s largest increase in population, by far, and the population is now verging on the half a million mark.

Over 2018, Malta’s population increased by 3.68 per cent, the largest increase in the bloc, with the second-highest riser being Luxemburg at 1.96 per cent. They were followed Ireland (1.52%), Cyprus (1.34%) Sweden (1.08%), Slovenia (0.68%), Belgium (0.61%), Spain and the Netherlands (both 0.59%) and the United Kingdom (0.56%).

Over the last year, Malta’s population increase by close to 18,000 resident, bringing the population level to just shy of the half a million mark, at 493,600.

In 2018, Malta registered 4,400 live births and 3,700 deaths in absolute numbers, with a natural change of plus 800. Malta’s crude rate of live births and deaths in 2018 were 9.2 (EU average 9.7) and 7.6 (10.4) respectively – meaning that Malta had fewer live births and fewer deaths than the EU average over the last year.

Overall, the population of the entire EU increased by 1.1 million people (0.21%) to reach an approximate 513.5 million during 2018, which saw five million babies being born across the bloc, almost 118,000 fewer than the previous year.

Across Member States, the highest crude birth rates in 2018 were recorded in Ireland (12.5 per 1 000 residents), Sweden (11.4‰), France (11.3‰) and the United Kingdom (11.0‰), while the lowest were registered in Italy (7.3‰), Spain (7.9‰), Greece (8.1‰), Portugal (8.5‰), Finland (8.6‰), Bulgaria (8.9‰) and Croatia (9.0‰). At EU level, the crude birth rate was 9.7 per 1 000 residents.

In the meantime, 5.3 million deaths were registered in the EU in 2018, almost 46,000 more than the previous year. Ireland (6.4 per 1,000 residents), Cyprus (6.6‰) and Luxembourg (7.1‰) had in 2018 the lowest crude death rates, followed by Malta (7.6‰), the Netherlands (8.9‰), Spain and Sweden (both 9.1‰). At the opposite end of the scale, Bulgaria (15.4‰), Latvia (15.0‰), Lithuania (14.1‰), Romania (13.5‰) and Hungary (13.4‰) recorded the highest. For the EU as a whole, the crude death rate was 10.4 per 1,000 residents.

Consequently, Ireland (with a natural change of its population of +6.1‰) remained in 2018 the Member State where births most outnumbered deaths, ahead of Cyprus (+4.1‰), Luxembourg (+3.2‰), Sweden (+2.3‰), France (+2.2‰), the United Kingdom (+1.7‰) and Malta (+1.6‰). In contrast, among the fifteen EU Member States which registered a negative natural change in 2018, deaths outnumbered births the most in Bulgaria (-6.6‰), followed by Latvia (-4.9‰), Lithuania (-4.1‰), Croatia, Hungary and Romania (all -3.9‰).

With 83.0 million residents (or 16.2% of the total EU population at 1 January 2019), Germany is the most populated EU Member State, ahead of France (67.0 million, or 13.1%), the United Kingdom (66.6 million, or 13.0%), Italy (60.4 million, or 11.8%), Spain (46.9 million, or 9.1%) and Poland (38.0 million, or 7.4%). For the remaining Member States, fourteen have a share of between 1% and 4% of the EU population and eight a share below 1%.

In contrast, the largest population decrease was recorded in Latvia (-7.5‰), followed by Bulgaria and Croatia (both -7.1‰), Romania (-6.6‰) and Lithuania (5.3‰).

Malta is still the lowest populated member state with a 0.1 per cent share in the EU’s total population.