Malta has 10 psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants, ranking it amongst the lowest in the European Union for the number of psychiatrists relative to population size, a report by Eurostat indicated.

The EU’s statistic body found that Malta ranks third from the bottom, level with Spain in this statistic.  Bulgaria has the least psychiatrists relative to population, with eight registered for every 100,000 inhabitants.  Poland meanwhile has nine registered psychiatrists for every 100,000 inhabitants.

However it should be noted according to past studies into the same subject by Eurostat, that Malta’s number of psychiatrists relative to population size has seen an increase over the years. In 2011 in fact, Malta had only 6 for every 100,000 inhabitants, which was the least in the whole of the EU back then. 

Between 2011 and 2016, the number of psychiatrists per 100,000 increased most in Greece (from 17 to 23) and decreased most in Ireland (from 24 to 18).

At the other end of the spectrum; the EU countries with the highest number of psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants are Germany (27), Finland (24), and Sweden, Greece, France, the Netherlands and Lithuania (all 23).

Taking into consideration countries within the European Economic Area and not in the EU, both Liechtenstein and Switzerland fared better than all EU countries, with 34 and 51 psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants respectively.  Iceland (26) and Norway (24) also registered high numbers.  At the other end of the spectrum, Macedonia registered only nine psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants, whilst Turkey registered only a meagre four.

Eurostat estimated that in 2016 there were around 90,000 psychiatrists in the European Union, excluding the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, for which recent figures are not available. 

The represents an increase of around 4,000 psychiatrists since 2011, Eurostat said.