One in 10 people living in Gozo have a firearm licence, according to official statistics.

The proportion of firearm licences issued to Gozo residents stands at 10.5%, almost double the 5.4% held by residents in Malta.

Similarly, holding a nautical licence was more common in Gozo and Comino than in Malta. 

The data emerged as part of a skills survey carried out by the National Statistics Office, which also gathered information on the different types of licences held by Maltese and Gozitan residents.

Unsurprisingly, a driving licence is the most common licence type in Malta, with 82.1% of people holding one.

The second and third most popular types were nautical licences at 8.4 per cent and firearm licenses.

Possession of a nautical licence and a firearms licence was shown to be concentrated among people forming part of the armed forces, as well as others identified as being agricultural, forestry or fishery workers.

The survey also touched upon language used in Malta.

The three top languages persons aged 15-64 were proficient in at the time of the survey were English at 96%, Maltese at 90.4% and Italian at 62%.

Other languages, such as French, Spanish, German and Arabic joined the top ranks of Malta’s lingual landscape.

More than 30 different languages were identified in the survey, with the NSO saying this reflects the diversity of nationalities residing in the country.

The survey showed that 45.7 per cent of the 15-64 population knew three languages.

Out of these, over 90% were Maltese.

From a gender perspective, females in the 15-64 age bracket tended to be more likely to be proficient in three or more languages, with 74.1% of the whole female population segment against 68.8% for males.