World Population Day, marked yesterday, is an annual event that has been observed for the past 17 years, serving as an opportunity to raise awareness on important population issues. The theme selected by the United Nations this year was “motherhood”.

The National Statistics Office yesterday referred to salient aspects of population in Malta.

The total population at end 2006 is estimated at 405,577, of whom just over half were women. Of these, 24 per cent comprised people under 20 years of age, while 14 per cent comprised people aged 65 years and over.

A significant shift in age distribution over these past 25 years concerns a decrease in the younger age groups and an increase in the older ones. This is mainly attributable to a fall in live births, a factor that has been characteristic of these past years. In fact, across the 1997-2006 decade, the number of live births decreased by 20 per cent.

In comparison with 2005, live births rose by nearly one per cent in 2006 – male births increased by three per cent, while female ones decreased by nearly two per cent.

The majority – 53 per cent – were first births, while 33 per cent were second births.

Most mothers were aged between 25 and 29 years, while six per cent of all maternities occurred among women up to 20 years old.

Total registered deaths in 2006 numbered 3,216, implying an increase of nearly three per cent over 2005. This annual statistic has been the highest registered since 1997. As in previous years, the majority of deaths were registered in the 75-and-over age group; but the proportion of total deaths in 2006 of the 75+ age group is three percentage points higher than the annual average for the decade 1997-2006 – the mean proportion of total deaths averaged over these 10 years of this age group was 58 per cent, while this stood at 61 per cent last year.

Last year, registered marriages increased by seven per cent compared to 2005. Civil marriages numbered 859, or 34 per cent of all marriages.

The 25-29 age group is the most recurrent one in respect of both men and women who are getting married. A score of persons, mostly men, aged 65 years and over were married in 2006.