It’s been known for quite a while that the Maltese population is growing and will continue to grow for another 25 to 30 years, but then it will start to decrease from the peak of about 429,000 that will be reached some time around 2035.

The reasons are crystal clear. Before and after the Second World War, couples used to have five children or more; these have now grown up but had fewer children who have also grown up and are having fewer children themselves too.

Added to the factor that people are today living longer, you get the situation that was highlighted by a European Union report that was published last week – which states that the Maltese population will grow by 4.5 per cent until 2035, but will drop again to the current levels by the year 2060.

All this means that Malta will become even more densely populated than it currently is, and this will bring about even more problems in various sectors. For one thing, these people have to live somewhere, and with houses and apartments sprouting everywhere, the increase in population will probably mean more new buildings unless we change our culture.

There must be a concerted effort, as of now, to encourage people to refurbish and occupy existing residences so as not to exacerbate the already precarious situation. The other solution would be high-rise buildings, of which we already have a few examples. Yet again, however, this must be done with full respect to the environment and the people already living in the area.

The related infrastructural problems will also need to be tackled to meet the demands of the population rise.

There will be heavier traffic jams, as there will be more cars on the road. More and more people today can afford to buy a car, and with more people living on an island that is not growing in size, the traffic problems will increase. Again, this is something we are experiencing already, and therefore the construction of new roads must be better planned to sustain the larger volume. Added to this, there must be a constant improvement in the public transport sector so as to encourage more people to make use of it rather than their private vehicles – we would then have fewer cars and a cleaner environment.

There will also be a bigger strain on the health services. People are today living longer thanks to advancements in medicine, but at the same time it means that government will have to spend more on the care of elderly people to allow them to continue living in dignity. There will also be a bigger need for homes for elderly people.

The European Union report highlighted other matters, such as the fact that by the year 2035, one fourth of the population will be over 65, compared with today’s 13.8 per cent, while the proportion of over 80s will rise from the current 3.2 per cent to 8.3 per cent. The pensions reform that the government introduced some months ago will have to be revised sharply again at least twice by the time we get there, as the working population will get thinner as the number of pensioners continues to increase. There will be fewer workers to “sustain” the pensioners through their social security contributions.

The year 2035 is certainly beyond the horizon for many of us, but it does not mean that the increase in the population is a matter that should be put aside and ignored, because the problem will eventually arrive. It is better to start planning now, as has been done in the pensions reform, rather than allow the problem to creep up unnoticed with all the resulting consequences.