Population of Malta

Currently, the resident population of Malta is 563,433 inhabitants according to the latest 2025 revised estimates from the National Statistics Office, Malta’s statistics agency.

In 2015, the archipelago had 445 053 inhabitants. Over the last ten years, Malta’s population has therefore grown by 26 %.

Malta is the least-populated member state of the European Union: it is the only one of the 27 with fewer than 600 000 inhabitants. At the continental scale, Malta ranks seventh among the least-populated countries, behind Vatican City, San Marino, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Andorra and Iceland. If micro-states (Vatican City, San Marino, Monaco, Liechtenstein and Andorra) are excluded, Iceland remains Europe’s least-populated country and Malta comes second.

Malta is notable for being a small state, home to an updated population of 563,433 inhabitants spread over a territory of only 316 km². The population density of Malta is therefore around 1,780 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Because of its limited land area, the archipelago has a very high concentration of residents. Malta is simultaneously the smallest country in the European Union by area and the EU member with the highest population density. Excluding micro-states, Malta also ranks among the most densely populated countries in the world.

This record density in the EU should, however, be put into perspective: Monaco and Vatican City (micro-states with fewer than 100 000 inhabitants) are far denser, and several large European metropolises—Paris, Berlin, Rome or Madrid—greatly exceed 2 000 inhabitants /km². By way of example, Paris has more than 20 000 inhabitants /km², an order of magnitude that dwarfs Maltese cities.

The Maltese archipelago has several particularities: it is both a destination prized by many foreigners and a very popular tourist hotspot.

Many expatriates and immigrants living in Malta do not appear in the official census figures.

The archipelago also receives nearly 3.5 million travellers every year. The island is therefore structurally very crowded, and even overloaded during the summer season, when there is roughly one resident for every tourist present.

Contrary to popular belief, Valletta, Malta’s capital, is not the most populous city in the country. Valletta has only 5,426 inhabitants.

In 2023, the three most populous localities on the island, excluding tourist presence, are Saint Paul’s Bay – San Pawl il-Baħar (36,013 inhabitants), Birkirkara (24,950 inhabitants) and Tas-Sliema (23,167 inhabitants). Tas-Sliema (Sliema) is also the Maltese city with the highest population density.

The least-populous city in Malta is currently L-Imdina (Mdina), the island’s former capital, with just 219 officially recorded inhabitants.

Immigration—or more broadly the foreign-born population residing in Malta—is a key driver of the island’s demographic evolution. Mass immigration, with nearly 100 000 new residents in ten years, has been the engine of strong population growth.

In 2023, of Malta’s total population, 404 675 inhabitants are of Maltese origin (74.6 %) and 137 376 of foreign origin (25.4 %). At present, one in four residents of Malta is not of Maltese origin. In 2012, only 5.5 % of the population was foreign-born.

The four most common foreign nationalities in Malta are Italians, Britons, Indians and Filipinos.

This demographic trend is evident both in society at large and in the political debates that animate the island.