Today’s Maltese childbearing generation needs to have at least three children for the population to increase, a process that would take at least 60 years, a conference was told last week.

“We need to convince today’s generation, those who prefer raising cats and dogs instead of children, to have at least three children,” economics lecturer Rose Marie Azzopardi said during a panel discussion at a conference of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) on Thursday.

The event focused on perceptions and attitudes towards work-life balance, with a particular emphasis on family size.

Azzopardi, who has a special interest in labour studies, emphasised the urgency of addressing the country’s declining population trends.

She explained that even if this shift is achieved, it would take two more generations – 60 years – for the population to increase. If the current generation remains reluctant, the process would take 90 years.

She based her calculations on a generational span of 30 years, highlighting the long-term nature of the challenge.

Malta has the lowest fertility rate in the European Union at 1.08, far below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. According to Azzopardi and  Anna Borg, who presented the keynote speech at the conference, approximately one-third of children born in Malta today have non-Maltese mothers.

Azzopardi also noted that the population would remain stagnant, rather than grow, even if today’s generation opted to have slightly more than two children per family.

Globally, the issue of declining fertility is widespread. Azzopardi remarked that Malta is not alone in struggling with a low fertility rate and that many countries are grappling with population growth issues, including India, the world’s most populated country where growth rates are now slowing.

Eighty per cent of nations, she pointed out, currently have population growth rates below three per cent.

Malta’s population challenges are not new. “We are only paying attention to this now because we are at the bottom,” Azzopardi said.

She recalled that the first notable population decline occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, driven by significant emigration. In 1963, Malta’s fertility rate stood at 3.7, compared to a global average of five.

The last time Malta reached a fertility rate of two was in 1997.