Where is Malta (and other FAQs)

I moved to Malta from the UK back in 2010 and when I started telling people, most of them had no idea where Malta was, what language they spoke, what the climate was like or what exactly I was getting myself in for. I will answer these questions for you!

Where is Malta?

Malta is a tiny island just south of Sicily, which is south of Italy. It sits in the Mediterranean sea between Sicily and Libya. Its 80km south of Italy and 333 north of Libya. It’s part of Europe and part of the EU.

Malta FAQs

The Republic of Malta is an archipelago made up of 3 islands, Malta, Gozo and Comino. Malta is the main island, Gozo in the middle and little Comino is the smallest and the only one that is uninhabited (or maybe it has 1 official resident).

• How many people live in Malta?

  • Malta has a population of 515,000 people as of the 2019 estimate

• How big is Malta?

  • Malta is tiny! The main island, Malta is only 316 km squared

  • That’s 27km (17 miles) long and 14.5 km (9 miles) wide

  • If you put together the size and the population, you see an interesting statistic. Malta is small, but it is PACKED. Malta is the 10th smallest country in the world by size but the fourth most densely populated country. That means a lot of apartment blocks, and not a whole lot of green, open space

• What language do they speak in Malta?

  • In Malta the official languages are Maltese and English

  • You’ll find that over 90% of the population in Malta speaks English

  • It’s also common for the locals to speak Italian

• When did Malta join the EU?

  • Malta joined the EU in 2004 and adopted the EURO currency in 2008. Prior to joining the EU the currency was the Maltese lira which was a super strong currency. It was around 2 lira to €1 at the time of the switch. When I first moved here in 2010 you still found most prices in most shops showing both € and Lira, but these days everything is listed in €

• What time zone in Malta?

  • Malta sits in Central European Time, but what does that mean? Basically it’s the same time as most of the rest of Europe. They are one hour ahead of the UK along with Sweden, Italy, Spain and more

• How many churches are there in Malta?

  • Malta is a heavily Catholic country and churches are prominent. There are over 360 churches on the island of Malta, enough to visit a different one every day of the year

• How many tourists visit Malta each year?

  • A LOT. Considering how tiny this little island is, it plays host to MILLIONS of tourists every year. 2020 was different of course, but before that the island saw consistent growth YOY. In 2018 for example Malta registered 2.6MILLION tourists, an increase of almost 15% on the previous year. It makes going to the beach in summer in Malta a nightmare, as the beaches are JAM PACKED

• How many foreigners live in Malta?

  • The latest statistics say that 67,000 foreigners live on the island, making up 14% of the total population of the country. The majority of foreigners living in Malta are from other EU countries (although that stat might change with the UK leaving the EU).

Is Malta British?

No, but it was! Malta was a British colony from 1813 until their independence in 1964 so you’ll find many aspects of the island similar to the British isles. They drive on the left like the Brits, they have UK -pin plugs and the majority of the population speaks English. There are quite a few British communities in Malta as well. In the central area of the country (Valletta to St Julians) you’ll find a large immigrant and expat community from many EU countries such as Sweden, Finland and the UK, however the majority of Brits are people who have retired here and they tend to stay to the north of the island around Bugibba and St Pauls Bay where rent and beer is cheaper.