Malta's population has increased by around 150,000 people over the past 13 years.
Eurostat (demo_gind): Malta's population was 422,509 at start-2013 and 563,000 at start-2024 — an 11-year increase of +140,491. Extending across the full 13-year window through 2026 (using continued NSO trend ~10K/yr) the cumulative figure reaches approximately 150,000. Grech's headline number is broadly accurate. Malta has had the highest population growth rate of any EU member state across the period (~+33% cumulative), driven almost entirely by net migration (~96% of the change) rather than natural increase. Foreign-born share rose from ~9% (2013) to ~32% (2024) — the largest rise of any EU country.
Eurostat (demo_gind): Malta's population was 422,509 at start-2013 and 563,000 at start-2024 — an 11-year increase of +140,491. Extending across the full 13-year window through 2026 (using continued NSO trend ~10K/yr) the cumulative figure reaches approximately 150,000. Grech's headline number is broadly accurate. Malta has had the highest population growth rate of any EU member state across the period (~+33% cumulative), driven almost entirely by net migration (~96% of the change) rather than natural increase. Foreign-born share rose from ~9% (2013) to ~32% (2024) — the largest rise of any EU country.
We tested Grech's '~150,000 over 13 years' against Eurostat's harmonised demographic data (demo_gind) and NSO Malta's annual releases, and decomposed the change into natural vs migratory components to test whether the headline figure reflects the actual driver.
True. Eurostat records +140,491 cumulative growth 2013→2024; extending through 2026 with NSO trend reaches approximately 150,000. The change was ~96% net migration, ~4% natural change. Malta's growth rate is the highest in the EU across the period (~+33% cumulative), well ahead of Luxembourg (~+20%) and Ireland (~+13%). Limitations: 2025-2026 figures are extrapolation rather than fully realised counts; demographic series can shift slightly across release vintages.
Has Malta's population really grown by ~150,000 people over the past 13 years
Grech's claim is testable directly against Eurostat's harmonised demographic data and NSO Malta's annual releases. The 13-year window straddles 2013-2026 — Eurostat documents the 2013→2024 change (the full official 11-year run) and NSO trend allows estimating the 2025-2026 increment. The decomposition into natural vs migratory components matters because it shapes the downstream consequences for housing, schools, traffic and healthcare load.
Population trajectory, 2013-2026
The line below traces Malta's population from the official 2013 base of 422,509 to the start-2024 Eurostat figure of 563,000, with NSO-trend extrapolation through 2026. Cumulative change across the 13-year window is approximately 150,000.
The cumulative increase 2013→2024 is +140,491 people over 11 years (Eurostat). Adding continued growth through 2025-2026 (~10K/year per the latest NSO trend), the 13-year cumulative reaches approximately +150,000 — Grech's headline figure.
What's driving the growth — natural change vs net migration
The driver of the growth matters because it shapes the downstream consequences for housing, schools, traffic and healthcare. Malta's growth is essentially entirely migration-driven, not natural-increase-driven.
| Component | Magnitude (2013-2024) | Share of total change | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total population change | +140,491 | 100% | Eurostat anchor |
| Natural change (births − deaths) | ~+5,000 | ~4% | ~flat — low fertility |
| Net migration (immigration − emigration) | ~+135,000 | ~96% | structural driver |
| Foreign-born population stock — Eurostat migr_pop3ctb | |||
| Foreign-born share of population, 2013 | ~9% | — | baseline |
| Foreign-born share of population, 2024 | ~32% | — | +23 pp |
| Children born to foreign-born mothers (2013→2023) | 11% → 36% | — | +25 pp — largest in EU |
Of the +140,491 cumulative change 2013-2024, roughly 135,000 came from net migration and only ~5,000 from natural change. Maltese fertility is among the lowest in the EU, which is why the natural-change line is essentially flat. The structural driver of Maltese population growth across the legislature has been migration — and that is what the headline 150,000 figure captures.
EU comparison — cumulative population change 2013-2023
The diverging bar chart below benchmarks Malta against EU peers across 2013-2023. Malta is at the top of the EU table by a clear margin; some EU member states have actually contracted.
Malta's ~33%+ cumulative growth across the decade is unusual in EU terms — well over half again as fast as Luxembourg, more than 2.5× Ireland, and over 10× the EU-27 average. Even fast-growing economies with significant immigration grow at half to two-thirds of Malta's pace. Some EU member states have contracted (Italy, Bulgaria, Lithuania).
What this growth has meant for infrastructure
+150,000 people over 13 years on a 2013 base of 422,509 represents roughly +35% population growth — equivalent to adding the populations of Sliema, Birkirkara, San Ġwann and St Julian's combined. The downstream pressure is visible across multiple policy areas, each covered separately on Spunt:
| Domain | How the population pressure shows up | Cross-ref |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic congestion | Malta now ranks 2nd globally for road congestion | see #J02 |
| Housing affordability | House prices roughly doubled 2013-2024; price-to-income widened ~50% | see #262, #217 |
| School capacity | Capacity pressure at locality level even as aggregate budget grew | see #259 |
| Healthcare load | A&E presentations, hospital bed-day demand, primary-care capacity | — |
| Workplace stress | Malta's 57% workplace-stress reading correlates with density | see #J01 |
| Open-space pressure | Green space per capita has fallen as built-up area expanded | — |
| Water and waste systems | Utility infrastructure stretched to absorb the additional load | — |
Grech's headline number is part of a broader argument that post-2013 economic growth has come with infrastructure pressure that the headline GDP figures don't capture. The factual underlying — +150K residents — is supported. The policy argument about whether this represents inadequate infrastructure planning or an inevitable feature of fast economic growth is a separate political question we leave to the reader.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes. Eurostat records +140,491 increase over 2013-2024 (11 years); extrapolating through 2026 (the 13-year window Grech references) adds another ~10-15,000 to reach approximately 150,000 cumulative. Malta has had the highest population growth rate of any EU member state across the period, driven almost entirely by net migration. Verdict: True.