Malta’s population has reached 516,000, according to the last census, the National Statistics Office said on Friday.
This is nearly 100,000 over the population size recorded for the 2011 census.
The NSO said in a statement that the result of the census, taken on November 21, also showed there are also 210,000 private dwellings.
In 2011 there were 153,000 private households.
Around 10,000 people lived in institutes or other forms of alternative care as of November 21, 2021, the NSO said. It counted 269 such institutional dwellings in the country. Data collection of persons residing in institutional dwellings will be completed by the end of March.
The NSO said that the Census Office, responsible for field and data management issues related to the 2021 census, is currently double-checking basic personal and dwelling information collected during the census period.
By the end of February, the overall response rate among private dwellings stood at 83.4%, ranging from over 94% certain localities including Tarxien, Iklin and Żurrieq, to less than 65% in others, including Żebbug, St Julian’s and Sliema.
The NSO found no real difference in response patterns between genders, though it noted that households made up predominantly of Maltese nationals were more likely to respond.
Around one in three households completed the census form online, before field officers were deployed on November 8.
There were almost 1,000 such officers knocking on doors and helping households complete the census. Traditional enumeration from the field contributed to an additional 36.9% to the overall response.
Response rates, the NSO said, will be further refined once the exact status of a number of dwellings is confirmed during the follow-up stage. This includes dwellings with which no form of communication could be established during the data collection period and others likely to be vacant or used occasionally throughout the year.
All work on the census enumeration process is expected to be completed by July.
The NSO said that a more accurate count of the total population and dwelling counts will be provided in a preliminary report that will present a socio-demographic profile of the total resident population. This is expected to be published in the second quarter of the year.