Marsaskala and St Paul’s Bay emerge as Malta’s fastest growing localities, while inner harbour suburbs like Floriana are the most endangered. James Debono on Malta’s ongoing population drift from urban centres to seaside resorts
The rise of seaside towns Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s place of residence is Malta’s fastest growing locality, with its population growing by 95% from 4,770 inhabitants in 1995 to 9,346 in 2005. Just 20 years ago the southern seaside locality had fewer than 2,000 inhabitants.
Marsaskala is also one of Malta’s youngest localities with an average age of just 32. Only 11% of Marsaskala’s residents are over 60 and 15% are under nine years of age. Nearly 5% of residents are foreign-born. Over the past decade, population density has increased by a staggering 851 persons per square km.
St Paul’s Bay has seen its population density rise from a sheer 471 persons per square kilometre in 1995 to the present 923 persons per square km.
St Paul’s Bay is also the second fastest growing locality. The population has nearly doubled in the past 10 years from 7,392 to 13,412.
But despite its fast growth in population the average age of this locality, at 37, is even higher than Attard’s, whose population remained stable over the last decade – a clear indication that the northern locality attracts mature singles.
A large number of households in St Paul’s Bay (29%) are inhabited by single persons. But unlike other localities like Valletta where most single households are inhabited by elderly people, 70% of homes in St Paul’s Bay are inhabited by under 60-year-olds. This could reflect the popularity of this locality as the choice of residence for separated persons.
Towns in decline The 2005 Census has revealed that Malta’s southern harbour, comprising Cottonera, Valletta and its suburbs, is the only region which saw a decline in population in the last ten years. The only localities in this region which showed significant signs of growth were Fgura and Zabbar.
Working class localities which grew in the post-war period, like Santa Lucija and Paola, are showing clear signs of decline. Paola lost 6% of its population in the past decade, although with a new residential development in the Schrieber ground in the pipeline, Paola could reverse the trend.
Santa Lucija, a cluster of austere housing estates established in the 1970s, lost 12% of its population in the same timeframe.
Once Malta’s industrial heartland due to its proximity to the Dockyard and a fortress of Mintoffian militancy, Bormla has experienced a slow but constant decline since 1967 when its population topped the 9,000 mark.
Yet unlike Sliema and Valletta, Bormla still retains a healthy mix between old and young even if the number of those over 60 is double the number of children under 9 years of age.
Despite its constant decline, with an average age of 39, Bormla is a younger town than Sliema and Valletta. It also has fewer one-person households than Sliema and Valletta. 46% of households in Bormla host more than three people – an indication that families with children still thrive in this depressed locality.
One even finds nine households with more than nine family members and two households with more than 10 people in them.
Valletta – once Malta’s largest city with a population of 22,768 in 1901 – has been in constant decline since the end of the Second World War when people started migrating from the inner harbour towns. The major decline in Valletta’s population occurred between 1967 and 1985 when the number of residents fell by 6,000. The population continued to decline from 7,262 in 1995 to the present 6,300.
With MEPA issuing a record number of permits for penthouses in the past year, the Valletta population could start rising again. But this could come at a cost as the Valletta skyline gets disfigured.
The capital city hosts 2,594 households – a large percentage of which (35%) are single-person households. 54% of single-person households in Valletta are inhabited by those aged 60 and over. Two-person households represent 27% of the total number of households.
Big families still abound in the capital city: 83 households in Valletta host more than seven persons, two of which host more than 10.
Valletta’s suburb Floriana has seen its population fall by 17% in the past decade. With 34% of its population over 60 years old and an average age of 46, Floriana could be destined to a slow death if it does not manage to attract any new residents. Only 7% of Floriana’s population is composed of young children.
Floriana’s population reached a peak in 1931 when it reached a population of 6,241. At that time Floriana absorbed the first exodus from the capital city but Floriana’s population has been declining slowly but steadily since 1957 without showing any signs of recovery.
Reversing the decline Although Sliema emerges as Malta’s oldest locality, in the past 10 years it managed to defy the laws of demography by experiencing a 3% increase in its population. Yet this has come at the cost of the tranquillity once enjoyed by Sliema’s ageing population.
With the average Sliema resident 47 years old, more than a third of Sliema’s population is now over 60. But for the first time since 1948 the old commercial capital’s population is on the rise again.
Back in 1948 Sliema emerged as Malta’s most populous city with a population of 24,295. Attracting mainly middle and upper class residents, the town also attracted shopkeepers and boasted its own working class quarter: the so-called Lazy Corner. But after reaching a peak in 1948 the population has been in constant decline reaching an ebb of 12,906 in 1995.
With a sharp rise in the number of planning permits from the mid-1990s to the present day, Sliema’s population is rising again, having reachws 13,242 in 2005. But a construction boom does not bode well for a town full of senior citizens.
Over the past decade the population density of this locality increased by 259 persons per square kilometre. Sliema’s population is expected to rise again as new residents move in the MIDI, Fort Cambridge and Town Square developments in Tigné.
Two-thirds of Sliema’s households consist host one or two people – another reflection of the town’s ageing population.
Past their peak Urban centres in the north harbour region, which attracted the post-war shift in population from the inner to the outer harbour, have stopped growing. While Birkirkara has seen a slight increase in population, major population centres like Qormi have experienced a slight decline.
Birkirkara still emerges as Malta’s biggest town
With a population approaching 22,000 Birkirkara holds its position as Malta’s most populous town but Mosta, growing at a faster rate, could easily overtake it in the next decade.
In the past 10 years B’Kara has risen by less than 600 residents.
Unlike the massive growth experienced by Marsaskala in the past decade, Birkirkara has grown slowly and organically over a century, from 8,500 residents in 1901 to its current 22,000. It was only in 1967 that Birkirkara became Malta’s second largest town after Sliema. By 1985 Sliema had lost a big chunk of its population and Birkirkara emerged as the most populous locality.
But with Mosta’s population rising at a faster rate during the past decade, Birkirkara could lose its top position in the next 10 years. With an average age of 38, it is also a slightly younger town than Sliema and Valletta, but older than Mosta.
Attard has grown tenfold since the beginning of the 20th century when it boasted a mere 1,837 inhabitants. This middle class locality owes its growth to the post Labour years in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the population nearly doubled from 5,681 in 1985, to 9,214 ten years later.
The town’s population has increased by a further 1,000 residents in the past 10 years reaching 10,405 in 2005.
But Attard’s population is relatively older than faster growing localities like Marsaskala. The average age of the locality’s inhabitants is 36. Children under 9 still outnumber residents aged over 60.
69% of Attard’s 3,009 households host more than three persons and only 9% are occupied by single persons – an indication that most households consist of families with a number of children. In fact households consisting of four persons account for 31% of the total.
Attard also has a relatively low density of 1,567 person per square kilometre; a tenth of Sliema’s density.
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