More than 80,000 people in Malta cannot afford to face an unexpected financial expense and more than double that number are unable to pay for a one-week holiday away from home, a national annual survey of material deprivation has found.
The 2020 survey found that the rates of both material deprivation rose by 0.3 percentage points over the past year, with 8.7 per cent of Malta’s population - 43,733 people - classified that way.
On the other hand, the rate of severe material deprivation fell by 0.3 percentage points to 16,636 people.
National Statistics Office surveyors estimated the total number of people living in private households in 2019 to be 484,683, rising to 505,014 in 2020.
The material deprivation and severe material deprivation metrics are derived from the EU-SILC survey, which measures levels of income, health and disability, employment and material deprivation across EU member states.
People whose homes fail to satisfy at least three items on the list are classified as materially deprived; those that fail four or more are deemed severely deprived.
Roughly one in every three people surveyed (32.9 per cent) said they could not afford a week-long holiday away from home. Around 16.3 per cent said their household was not in a position to weather an unexpected financial expense, which the survey sets at an expense of €740 or more.
Moreover, 7.2 per cent said that they were not able to keep the home adequately warm in winter and another seven per cent of the respondents said that their household had been in arrears on mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, hire purchase instalments or other loan payments.
Six per cent of respondents said they could not afford to eat meat or fish every other day. Some 2.4 per cent said they could not afford to own a car.
The survey also takes into account secondary indicators of material deprivation.
Less than six per cent of the surveyed sample – 3,826 households - said that they could not afford very basic needs, such as replacing worn-out clothes with new (not second-hand) ones, or, owning two pairs of properly-fitting shoes (including a pair of all-weather shoes).
Higher proportions said they could not afford to spend a bit of money on themselves each week (11.2 per cent) or regularly take part in a leisure activity (10.9 per cent). More than seven per cent of respondents (7.4 per cent) cannot afford to meet their friends or family for a drink or meal at least once a month.
The survey found that senior citizens and children are more likely to live in severely materially deprived households than working-age adults, with 4 per cent of those aged 65+ and 3.9 per cent of children living in such homes, compared to 3 per cent of adults aged 18 to 64.
Government reacts
In a statement issued on Monday afternoon, the government compared 2020 to 2013 figures, claiming a drop in material deprivation across the board.
It also noted that the number of people who did not suffer severe material deprivation had increased from 423,082 people in 2016 to 488,378 in 2020, proof of a better quality of life in Malta.
Family Minister Michael Falzon said the NSO figures showed that the government truly believed in social justice.