The third edition of the State of the Nation survey, an annual study commissioned by the Office of the President, was published on Friday morning, shedding light on how Maltese society is changing over the years.

Researchers say that the survey's findings help explain how people's beliefs, values and ideas are evolving. The survey asked over 1,000 people for their views on various topics, from politics and current affairs to religion, culture and their future prospects.

Times of Malta combed through the data to highlight five key changes to Maltese society outlined by the survey:

People are feeling less Maltese and increasingly European

Fewer than half of respondents say that they identify with their fellow Maltese, down from 54% in 2021, and a quarter now say that they feel they form part of the rest of Europe, over double the 11% who felt that way two years ago.

The number of people who identify with their local town or village is also shrinking, with just over one in four saying this is the case, compared to a third of respondents in 2021.

This change appears to be strongly driven by youth under 25, where under one in 10 say they feel a sense of belonging to their local town, compared to the 41% who say they feel European.

Similarly, almost one in five people say they would have liked to have been born and raised in another country, a significant increase over the 6% recorded in 2021. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of respondents – 75% - say they are happy to have been born and raised in Malta.

People who would have liked to have been born abroad tend to be younger, have a higher level of education, be unmarried (or divorced) and be higher earners.

Use of Maltese language dips, more people are bilingual

Only three quarters of Maltese now say that Maltese is their primary language, down from 82% in 2021. Meanwhile, the number of people who consider themselves equally bi-lingual has climbed from 16% to just under 20% and those who consider English as their first language have crawled up to almost 4%.

Again, people under 25 are playing a key role in shaping this trend. Only just over half of youths consider Maltese to be their first language, significantly less than any other age group, while one in ten is primarily English-speaking. A further quarter believes themselves to be equally adept at both languages.

Quality of life continues to fall

The number of people who say their standard of living is below average has almost doubled since 2021, shooting from 5% to 9% over the past two years.

Likewise, whereas almost one in five previously believed that their standard of living was above average, this now stands at just 12%.

People who have undergone separations or divorces are particularly likely to feel that their quality of life is poor.

It is clear that a person’s level of income plays a large role in how they perceive their standard of living.

Almost half of Malta’s higher earners, namely those who declare an income of over €60,000 per year, say that they have an above-average standard of living. This is over 30% higher than any other income group.

Religious faith is still widespread but on the wane

While increasingly fewer people say they believe in God, Malta is still overwhelmingly religious, with 89% saying that they do believe in a God, regardless of which religion they follow.

This is down from 94% in 2021, when the survey was first carried out.

Likewise, the percentage of people who say that they do not believe in God continued to crawl up, now reaching almost 7%.

As expected, youths are comfortably the cohort who are least likely to profess faith, with a quarter of people under 25 saying that they do not believe in God, compared to 71% who do. This is 11% less than any other age cohort.

However, there has been a slight increase in the portion of people who say that religion plays a very important role in their life, rising from 58% last year to 61% this year. Likewise, more people are saying that religion informs their sense of right and wrong, with 49% saying that this is clearly the case, compared to 46% a year ago.

Multiculturalism still contentious, except among younger people

The Maltese are slowly becoming more comfortable with Malta’s multiculturalism, although a sense of ambivalence still prevails.

Asked to rate how comfortable they are with multiculturalism on a scale of one to five, respondents ranked their comfort at 3.05, almost a third higher than the 2.34 registered in the first edition of the survey.

Unsurprisingly, younger people tend to be more comfortable with the idea of multiculturalism, with people under 25 being the only group saying that they are broadly comfortable. On the other hand, lower-income groups are more likely to disapprove of Malta’s increasing cosmopolitanism.