One fifth of children born out of wedlock

Just over 19 per cent of all Maltese children were born out of wedlock last year, a huge leap from the 1.1 per cent registered 25 years ago.

The statistics were published as part of a demographic Eurostat report, although local figures issued by the National Statistics Office had already indicated a similar trend.

Statistics issued last August by the NSO indicated that 48.7 per cent of all births to mothers aged between 15 and 24 were registered outside marriage. Children born to women in this age group accounted for nearly a quarter of all births.

Among mothers aged 17-24, the rate of births outside marriage stood at 23.3 per cent.

The Eurostat report shows Malta stands some 10 percentage points below the EU average (31.6 per cent) of births outside marriage. Five countries have a rate lower than Malta's - Poland (17.2 per cent), Italy (14.9 per cent), Croatia (10.4 per cent), Greece (4.9 per cent), Cyprus (3.3 per cent).

Slovakia has a slightly higher rate than Malta while that in Luxembourg stands at 26.1 per cent. The countries with the highest rates are Estonia (57.8 per cent in 2003), Sweden (55.4 per cent), Denmark (45.4 per cent), Latvia (45.3 per cent), France (45.2 per cent in 2003), Slovenia (43.5 per cent) and the United Kingdom (42.3 per cent).

The leap from the 1980s was drastic for most countries, save for a handful of countries such as Sweden and Denmark which back then were already registering a rate of 39.7 per cent and 33.2 per cent respectively.

Last year, figures for Malta stood below the EU average also when it comes to fertility rate. The EU average represents the mean number of children that would be born alive to woman during an average lifetime and stands at 1.5 (children per woman). Malta registered 1.37.

Again, the figure in 1980 stood at 1.9 - still less than that of a number of EU members states such as Cyprus with 2.46, Slovakia with 2.32, Poland with 2.28 and Spain with 2.2.

Some 15 of the countries surveyed registered rates below that of Malta last year. Those with rates closest to Malta's were Germany at 1.37, Croatia at 1.35, Italy at 1.33 and Spain at 1.32. Japan, which is used as reference outside Europe and which is the only country with population density issues close to Malta's, also registered a rate of 1.38 children per woman.

The highest rates in Europe were those of Ireland (1.99), France (1.90), Finland (1.80) and Denmark (1.78). No EU member state, however, reached the replacement level - the rate at which births replace deaths - of 2.1. The lowest fertility rate was found in Slovenia (1.22).

When it comes to population, Malta surpassed the 400,000 mark last year by just under 3,000. There was an increase of 2,800 people or 2.8 per cent of the total population on 2003.

The rate of population growth moved from 6.5 per cent in 2003 to seven per cent in 2004, a completely different scenario to 1980 where a minus 11.8 per cent haemorrhage was registered.

The natural increase was high then and stood at 7.4 per cent compared to the 2.2 per cent registered last year, on a par with figures for 2003. However, net migration in 1980 stood at -19.1 per cent.

Over the years this was reversed. In fact, migration figures for last year now stand at plus +4.8 per cent, a 0.5 per cent increase on 2003. Back in the 1980s high birth rates somewhat compensated for emigration, while now immigration is making up to a certain extent for the low birth rate.

Overall the EU population has grown from 457.2 million on January 1 of last year to 459.5 million on January 1 this year. The population of the EU 25 increased by 2.3 million last year, mainly due to net migration of 1.9 million. The natural increase was 0.4 million.

The population of the US, for instance, increased by 0.9 per cent last year (294.4 million on January 1 this year). In Europe, population change varied from 0.6 per cent in Lithuania to 25.4 per cent in Cyprus.