Statistics place Malta among safest countries

If one were to go by the number of murders, Malta was one of the safest countries to live in last year because no homicides were committed, police historian Eddie Attard said.

Mr Attard said the number of murders committed in a country was often used as a barometer of how safe it is to live in a particular country.

Malta's average murder rate for the past 30 years was of six murders a year, placing the island in the "very low" category.

"The categories range from very high to high, average, low and very low," Mr Attard said.

"The murder rate in Malta is low but is comparatively higher when compared to Britain, whose rate is of 13 to 14 murders per million of population. Malta's population is under half a million but our average murder rate means we have a rate of 15 murders per million people, which is slightly higher as a rate when compared to the UK's," he noted.

Hence, a year during which no murders are committed takes on added significance, he said.

The last murder committed in Malta was almost 16 months ago when Rachel Muscat was murdered by a former boyfriend on August 12, 2002.

"There have been a total of 11 years without a single murder in the last century," Mr Attard pointed out. No murders were committed in 1904, 1917, 1919, 1927, 1930, 1936, 1941, 1951, 1956, 1957 and 1959.

"The two years between 1956 and 1957 were particularly good as we had two consecutive years without a murder," Mr Attard said.

Over the past century, the worst year was 1981, when 11 murders were committed.

Although the average number of murders appeared to be low, before 1971 the average used to be two a year, three times lower than it has been for the past 30 years, Mr Attard said.

Another change worth pointing out is that shotguns are today used in almost half the murder cases. The use of shotguns in murders was practically unheard of before, except for a double murder in 1938, Mr Attard noted.