Educational and Economic Activity

The Census being reported upon, was certainly very exhaustive in gauging the educational background of our population. Apart from the usual standard questions on literacy and educational attainment, the Census covered new areas like the number and type of languages spoken as well as the educational qualifications of the population.

2.1 Literacy and Illiteracy

According to the Census, 286,284 persons aged 10 years and over were literate while 36,444 persons were illiterate. The illiterate element in the population constituted a share of 11.24 per cent of the total population over 10 years of age. Table 1 below provides a broad breakdown of the literate/illiterate population.

Table 1. Population aged 10 years and over by Literacy/Illiteracy and Gender

The level of literacy/illiteracy is not equally distributed among genders. Within the male segment of the population, 86.91 per cent or 138,320 persons were literate while 12.56 per cent or 19,995 persons were illiterate. At 90.40 per cent, male literacy is highest in the Northern Region. On the other hand, at 83.37 per cent, male literacy is lowest in the South Eastern Region. An analysis of male literacy/illiteracy on a national and regional basis is provided in table 2 below.

Table 2. Male Literacy

The number of female literate persons account for 89.55 per cent of the female population, aged 10 years and over. This rate is somewhat higher than that in respect of males. According to the Census, 147,964 females were literate while 16,449 were illiterate. The lowest female literacy rate was again recorded in the South Eastern region. However, it may be noted that, at 87.86 per cent, the female literacy rate within this region is significantly higher than the male rate within the same region. Again, as in the case of males, the Northern Region had the highest level of female literacy in the country. The following table provides a broad picture of the female literacy/illiteracy status on a national and regional basis.

Table 3. Female Literacy

At 36,444, the absolute number of illiterate persons in the population is higher than that recorded in the 1985 Census. Table 4 provides a comparative analysis of the number of illiterate persons as emerging from the various Censuses this century.

Table 4. Illiterate Persons

Evidently, significant strides forward in the level of literacy among the population were registered since 1911. Then 73.65 per cent of the population were illiterate. According to the last Census, only 11.24 per cent of the population were illiterate. This latter result seems to suggest that the gains in literacy in the 10-year period since 1985 were, for various reasons, somewhat lower than expected. Part of this problem seems to be the emergence of a group of young illiterates. As shown in table 5 below, the number of illiterate persons in the 10-19 years age group has gone up from 534 in 1985 to 1,775 in 1995. In 1985, this group of illiterate persons account for 1.1 per cent of all illiterate persons. In 1995, this group accounted for 4.9 per cent of all illiterate persons. Moreover, very little gains in literacy were registered in the 20-24 years age group in the intercensal period. The growth in illiteracy within these young age groups seems to have contributed to the slow decline in the overall illiteracy rate in the intercensal period. Obviously, such a significant finding, would suggest the need for a serious evaluation of our educational policies and systems.

Table 5. Percentage Distribution of Illiterate Persons by Broad Age Groups

2.2 Languages Spoken

For the first time ever, this Census sought to collect information on the number and type of languages that are spoken by the inhabitants of these islands. Although there was very little need for confirmation that the people of these islands are multi-lingual, the results are interesting in that these provide a very good indication of the spread of the different languages among the people. Tables 6 and 7 below provide summary results on the number and type of languages spoken as emerging from the Census.

Table 6. Percentage Distribution of Illiterate Persons by Broad Age Groups

Table 7. Percentage Distribution of Illiterate Persons by Broad Age Groups

As expected, while the vast majority of those who were 10 years and over spoke Maltese, as a native language, a very large proportion of the population spoke English as well. Indeed English was found to be spoken by almost 76 per cent of the population over 10 years of age. At over 36 per cent, Italian is the third most commonly spoken language in these islands. At almost 10 per cent, the number of persons who speak French seems to be growing.

2.3 Educational Attainment

According to the Census results, 13,978 persons or 9.63 per cent of the population aged 16 years and over had no schooling whatsoever. Most of these persons were in the older age groups. With the introduction of obligatory school attendance up to the age of 16, the number of persons finishing school at the secondary level of education increased and is bound to continue increasing as a proportion of the total population especially when compared to the results obtained in previous Censuses. Likewise, compared to previous Censuses, the proportion of those making it to the tertiary level of education has gone up considerably. Table 8 provides a gender-specific absolute and relative distribution of the educational attainment of the population aged 16 years and over.

Table 8. Distribution of Population aged 16 years and over by educational attainment

2.4 Economically Active Population

According to the Census, in the week preceding Census Day, the economically active population or the labour supply stood at 141,423. This was composed of 102,913 males and 38,510 females. The male and female components accounted for 72.8 per cent and 26.0 per cent respectively of the labour supply. At 7,394, the number of unemployed persons accounted for 5.2 per cent of the economically active population. Tables 9, 10 and 11 below provide a profile of the economically active population in the run-up to Census Day.

Table 9. Economically Active Population

Table 10. Population aged 16 years and over by type of activity and gender

Table 11. Economically Active Population by Occupation

As expected, the economically active population is still male dominated. Indeed the 102,913, the economically active males accounted for 72.8 per cent of the labour supply. The 38,510 females in the labour supply accounted for 26.0 per cent of all economically active persons. This picture is reversed in so far as the non-economically active population is concerned. Only 27.2 per cent of all males, aged over 16 years, were found not to be economically active. At the same time, the 109,770 non-economically active females accounted for 74.0 per cent of the non-economically active population.

Volume 4
Education and Economic Activity

Volume 4 Chapter 1: Introduction