Malta has been ranked 34th out of 175 United Nations countries in the organisation’s Human Development Index, which analyses a broad range of 2005 statistics gauging the quality of citizens’ lives.

Iceland came out on top in the index released yesterday, after replacing Norway, which had held the top spot for the previous six years running.

Malta’s ranking figured in the middle of the 70 countries comprising the group of mainly western countries having the highest levels of human development.

The index uses a wide range of criteria in establishing human development levels. In terms of life expectancy at birth, Maltese born in 2005 could expect to live for a healthy average of 79.1 years, adult literacy rates between 1995 and 2005 stood at 87.9 per cent, while combined gross enrollment in primary, secondary and tertiary education was at 80.9 per cent. Youth literacy rates in 2005, meanwhile, had stood at 96 per cent.

Malta’s score in the index has also consistently improved since 1975, the report showed yesterday, having nudged gradually upward from a score of 0.738 in 1975 to a score of 0.878 for 2005’s figures.

Malta’s population growth rate, meanwhile, is expected to decline from the 0.9 per cent registered between 1975 and 2005 to an estimated 0.4 per cent between 2005 and 2015. Malta’s urban population, not surprisingly considering Malta’s high population density, is also on the increase, rising from 89.7 per cent in 1975, to 95.3 per cent in 2005 and to an expected 97.2 per cent by 2015.

The country’s population of under 15s, meanwhile is also shrinking and is expected to decline from 17.4 per cent of the population in 2005 to 14.6 per cent by 2015. The opposite applies for over 60s, who represented 13.2 per cent of the population in 2005 to 17.7 per cent. Fertility rates, or births per woman, are also on the decline. The rate had stood at 2.1 between 1970 and 1975, while between 2000 and 2005 the rate had descended to 1.5 births per woman.

98 per cent of births in Malta were attended by skilled health professionals between 1997 and 2005, while the number of physicians per 100,000 citizens stood at a comparatively high rate of 318.

18 per cent of women were smokers between 2002 and 2004, while for men the figure stood at 30 per cent for the same time frame. Malta’s infant mortality rates have also spiralled downward between 1970 and 2005. In the former year there were 25 infant mortalities per 1,000 live births and by 2005 the figure had shrunk to just five. Similarly, mortality rates for children under five had descended from 32 per 1,000 live births in 1970 to just six in 2005.

In terms of crime and justice, there were 1.8 intentional homicides per 100,000 people between 2000 and 2004, while the prison population in 2007 equalled 86 per 100,000 citizens, while just four per cent of the prison population was female.

While Malta ranked an over 34 in the index, the country came in 63rd in the UN’s gender empowerment measure but was ranked 33rd in the gender-related development index. Women in Malta in 2005 had higher life expectancy rates – 81.1 years compared to 76.85 years for men – and higher adult literacy rates – 89.2 per cent for women and 86.4 per cent for men – while educational enrollment rates were equal in 2005 at 81 per cent. Men, however, brought home double the estimated earned income than women. Women in 2005, the UN calculates, the figure at USD12,834 for women compared with USD25,623 for men.