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MaltaToday 3 August 2022 MIDWEEK

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9 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 3 AUGUST 2022 Gharghur, foreigners in Msida Where pensioners live No two towns could be more different in their social make up then the aristocratic Mdina and the proletarian Santa Lucija but both share a similar fate; that of a shrinking and ageing popula- tion. Mdina's population has been in constant decline. From a pop- ulation of 1,384 in 1948 to just 193 in 2011. Nearly 60% of Mdi- na's population is now aged over 55. Santa Lucija, a town which grew around a housing estate, has seen its population decline from 3,605 in 1995 to 2,617 in 2021. Only 31% of its population is under 34 years of age while 47% are aged over 55 years. Birgu whose population is also in decline, is also getting older with less than 30% of its popula- tion aged under 34. Over 65-year-olds also account for 27% of Valletta's population, a city whose population has shrunk by a further 600 in the past decade which was also char- acterised by the transformation of the city into an entertainment hub replete with restaurants and boutique hotels. The decrease in Valletta's pop- ulation suggests that more peo- ple are moving out then moving into the city despite its recogni- tion as a European city of cul- ture. Where the foreigners live Foreigners now constitute a majority in Msida, St Paul's Bay and Gzira and nearly half the population of Sliema and St Julians. But significantly the in- crease in foreign population in Msida, Gzira and Sliema corre- sponds to a decline in the Mal- tese who live in these localities. This suggests that both local- ities are either becoming less attractive for Maltese residents due to over development or that property prices are driving them out. Gzira's Maltese pop- ulation has declined by 1,369 in the past decade while its for- eign population has shot up by 4,174. Msida's Maltese population has also declined by 917 in a decade which has seen the lo- cality's foreign population in- crease by 6,756. Sliema has also experienced a loss of 1,476 in its Maltese population and an increase in 7,510 in foreigners. Moreover, Gzira and Msida have among the lowest propor- tion of children amongst their inhabitant - 8.2% in Gzira and 8.5% in Msida. In contrast, Gharghur which has the largest percentage of children (20%) has seen a more sustained increase in its foreign population which has grown from 121 in 2011 to 503 in 2021. One consequence of this demo- graphic pattern is that foreign- ers who may have less sense of belonging due to the temporary nature of their stay in Malta are becoming a majority in a num- ber of localities. A substantial part of the for- eign population does not hail from the European Union and is therefore not even entitled to vote in local council elections. The census also shows a sharp divide between an increasing- ly multi-cultural north and a more ethnically homogenous south and west. In fact, less then 3% of the population in Mtarfa, Sant Lucija and Dingli is foreign. Foreigners also account for less than 10% in most southern localities where asylum seekers may be more visible but whose share is far less than that of foreign workers who are con- centrated in urban areas in the northern part of the country. The presence of foreigners is more pronounced in Marsaska- la and Marsa, where they make up 28% and 26% of the locality's respective populations. Localities with highest pensioner (65+) ratio (% of locality's population) Localities with largest foreign community (% of locality's population) Localities with smallest foreign community (% of locality's population) Mdina Santa Lucija Birgu Luqa Floriana Rabat Isla Ta' Xbiex Valletta Nadur 37.8 32.1 31.6 31.4 29.5 27.4 27.3 27.1 26.9 25.8 Msida St Paul's Bay Gzira San Giljan Sliema Swieqi Ta' Xbiex Marsaskala Marsa Hamrun 7,493 (55.1%) 17,282 (53.9%) 5,401 (52.3%) 5,754 (49.4%) 9,605 (48.9%) 5,219 (40.0%) 765 (36.8%) 4,647 (27.7%) 1,433 (26.2%) 2,544 (24.2%) Mtarfa Santa Lucija Dingli Mqabba Siggiewi Zejtun Kirkop Qrendi Zurrieq Ghaxaq 51 (2.0%) 66 (2.5%) 100 (2.6%) 141 (4.0%) 472 (5.1%) 637 (5.1%) 137 (5.4%) 193 (6.1%) 749 (6.1%) 348 (6.3%)

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