Civil marriages exceed religious marriages for the first time ever

● Population stood at 440,000 in 2016

More than half of the marriages registered in Malta in 2016 were not religious, but undertaken only civilly, statistics issued by the National Statistics office show.

There were 3,304 marriages registered in Malta and Gozo in 2016, with 1,628 (53.7 per cent) of them only civil marriages, an increase of 9.9 per cent over the previous year.

The figures include marriages by foreigners.

This is the first time that civil marriages exceeded religious marriages. In 2005 only 779 out of 2,374 were civil marriages. In 2010 there were 2,596, out of which 847 were civil ceremonies.

By 2015, civil marriages accounted for almost half of total marriages, with the scales finally tipping in 2016.

It is unclear whether the introduction of divorce in 2011, which allowed people to remarry, but only civilly, has any bearing on these figures.

From the total marriages registered, 19.9 per cent were between spouses aged 25-29 and 30.5 per cent of grooms were between the ages of 25 and 29, while a further 29.9 per cent were aged between 30 and 34. On the other hand, 38.8 per cent of brides were between 25 and 29 years old and a further 23.9 per cent were between the ages of 30 and 34.

Population grew by 1.4%

These figures were published on the occasion of World Population Day. The NSO said the estimated total population of Malta and Gozo at the end of 2016 stood at 440,433, up by 1.4 per cent when compared to 2015.

Persons under 18 made up 17.2 per cent of the total population, while a further 19.4 per cent were aged 65 and over. Of these, 2,642 persons – 1,836 females and 806 males – were over 89

The population increase was mainly due to net migration (immigration less emigration). The population of Malta accounts for 0.1 per cent of the total population of the EU.

Live births registered during 2016 increased by 2.3 per cent over the previous year.

During 2016, 150 babies, or 3.3 per cent, were born to teenage mothers. On the other hand, 64.2 per cent of babies were born to mothers aged between 25 and 34. Of the 3,342 deaths registered during 2016, 62.8 per cent were persons aged over 74 years.