Around a quarter of the population suffers from a long-term illness, disease or chronic condition, according to census results published on Friday.

Almost 130,000 people or 26% of those aged five or older suffered from a long-term health condition, the third volume of the Census of Population and Housing 2021 from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed.

This was a rise of six percentage points from the numbers seen in the previous census in 2011 when over 83,000 reported having a long-term condition.

While this represented a rise of almost 50,000 people, Malta’s population has increased by around a quarter (100,000) in the decade since the previous census.

Meanwhile, the average age at which women gave birth to their first child was found to have risen slightly compared to a decade before.

The average woman who answered the census in 2021 said she gave birth to her first child at the age of 25.9, a rise of one year when compared to the reported age of 24.9 in the 2011 census.

The NSO noted that this number “was found to be highly correlated to the age and level of education of the mothers”, but did not indicate how.

The census also showed that most women aged 15 or older were mothers in Malta, with almost 140,000, or around 64%, having given birth.  Around one in 10 mothers were single.

In the decade since the last census, the total number of single-parent households rose by over 900 to reach almost 6,400 households.

Nonetheless, households without dependents made up most of the homes in Malta at 76%. This was an increase of more than 10 percentage points compared to 2011 when the proportion stood at 65%.

The most common households were single-member ones without children where the resident was aged between 30 and 64.

Relationships

Men were more likely to be single than women, with 43% of men not married or in a relationship when compared to 35% of women. And just over half (50.4%) of the female population aged 16 or over were married or in a civil union, the census showed.

When it came to sexual proclivity, 2.5% of individuals identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or of a different sexual orientation. This was equivalent to over 11,000 people.

The census noted this was three times higher among non-Maltese nationals, where 5.5% of people identified as being of a different sexuality compared to just 1.6% of the Maltese.

According to a study from statistics company Statista, last year three per cent of the global population identified as being gay or lesbian, with a further four per cent saying they were bisexual and one per cent pansexual or omnisexual.

In 2017, the head of the United Nations' LGBT equality campaign said Malta had become the "gold standard" of LGBTQI reforms, while just last year the country was chosen to host EuroPride, Europe’s largest annual Pride event.