Over half of respondents (52.3%) in this year's State of the Nation survey believe that they will be living a better life this time next year. This is a 5.3% increase on the same question last year and a 13.2% rise since 2023.

Statistician Vincent Marmarà presented the sixth edition of the State of the Nation survey on Friday morning at the San Anton Palace.

Among the many notable results to come out from this study was optimism towards expected life satisfaction. From all survey respondents, 52.3% are hopeful that they will be living a better life next year, 13.5% answered negatively, and the remaining 34.1% were unsure.

The most optimistic age group were youths between the ages of 26-35 years old, with 71.8% of these adults feeling positive towards the coming 12 months. Youths aged 16-25 years of age were the next most optimistic towards the coming year, with two thirds (66.7%) believing that they will be living a better life next year.

Older demographics were more negative towards life in 2027; the older the demographic, the less optimistic for the coming period. The oldest demographic group in this study - those aged 66 and above - were the most pessimistic over their quality of life improving in the coming year; just 37.6% looked to the next year with optimism, and many more, nearly half of these respondents (49.4%), were unsure, while 13.1% answered negatively.

Adults between the ages of 46-65 years of age were found to be statistically most likely to look pessimistically towards the coming 12 months. Nearly a fifth of respondents within this age bracket (around 18.5%) disagreed that they'll be living better by next year.

This expected life satisfaction for 2027, in comparison to today's standards, varied significantly by education attainment levels. Among survey respondents with a tertiary education, over two thirds (68.6%) were optimistic for the next year. This expected compared life satisfaction dropped to 53.7% for those who attained, at best, a post-secondary education; 44.8% for those with secondary education; and just 18.7% for those with a primary-level education.

Marmarà stated that the younger and more educated the respondent was, the more positive their outlook was expected to be.

However, life satisfaction rates have dropped by 4.2% overall since last year. In 2025, 72.1% said they were happy with their lives; this fell to 67.9% in 2026. The number of people unhappy with their lives has doubled since last year, from 2.1% to 4.2%, as has the number of people claiming that life satisfaction could be better (from 25.2% to 27.7%).

Perhaps related, the number of people seeking help from mental health professionals on a regular basis - such as counsellors, family therapists, psychologists, and social workers - has doubled in the past year, to 8% in 2026.

86.8% believe their financial situation to have remained the same or improved in past year

Most respondents (46.0%) stated that their financial situation has remained the same in the past year, while 40.8% stated that this has improved in the past 12 months.

Inversely, 13.2% of respondents said that their financial situation has worsened since last year.

Youths aged 16-25 garnered the largest proportion of improved finances (56.2%), followed by 66+ year olds (48.6%), and those aged 26-35 (44.1%).

Adults aged between 36-45 years old recorded the lowest mark in this statistic, with just around three in every ten (29.9%) stating that their financial situation has improved. Over half of this demographic said that their financial situation has about remained the same.

Regionally, respondents from the Grand Harbour region experienced the least financial losses, with 7.2% marking their situations to have gone south. People from Gozo and Comino recorded the most improved financial situations, at 47.2% stating such.

18.4% wish they were born and raised outside of Malta

Nearly one in five said they wish they were born and raised elsewhere. Last year and the year prior, this mark stood at around one in every four persons.

This question on national pride garnered the lowest positive responses from 16-25 year olds. A third of this demographic admitted to wishing they were from another country and

Most people believe in God, but only around six in ten deem religion important

An overwhelming majority of respondents said they believe in God (90.5%), however only 57.0% admitted that religion was an important aspect of their lives.

Religion's importance is strongest among older generations and weakest in the youngest demographic; belief in God varied between generations in the same way. Religion was said to be very important to about half of all respondents with at least a post-secondary education, i.e., those who acquired their A-Levels.

Just under a third (32.5%) admitted to give religion minor importance in their lives, while 8.7% said it is of no importance to them and the remaining 1.7% were unsure.

Most people (41.2%) heavily consider religion in ethical decisions and 40.0% consider it on occasion. The number of people consistently considering religion in dilemmas between wrong and right has decreased by 12.7% since 2021.

This year's State of the Nation survey results show that 5.6% do not believe in God, while 3.9% are unsure.

Virtually all respondents with just a primary education (98.9%) believe in God. This faith fell among respondents with higher education levels, with this dropping to 86.2% among respondents with a tertiary education.

Public interest in politics rebounding from previous years' lows

The perceived importance of politics in peoples' lives looks to have grown from the drops observed in last year's survey.Last year, just 30.8% saw Maltese politics as something very important - down from 48.3% in 2021. This year, this has increased slightly to 32.2%.

The number of people giving it minor importance in their lives has increased more significantly - up from 35.0% in 2025 to 40.5%.Politics is the at its lowest relevance in the lives of 16-25 year olds and of its highest relevance among 56-65 year olds (49.7%).

Respondents with higher education levels were found to be more disillusioned with politics.A third of respondents (33.9%) said they consider their preferred political party's opinion on matters when coming up with their own position on things - a 6.9% rise from last year. 37.5% said they don't do this, while the remaining 28.7% said they do this on occasion. This practice is most common among older demographics and the lesser educated.60.2% said they've always voted for the same political party. In the last election year, 2022, this mark stood at 71.6%. 44.6% are now considering voting for a different political party in the future - a 12.6% rise since 2022 - with another 20.1% still unsure.

79.5% of all respondents said they are definitely voting in the next general election.74.0% of youths aged 26-35 are considering voting for a different party in the future - an outlier near other demographics.When asked whether they have approached a politician for a favour, 31.1% of respondents said they have. This practice was most prevalent among Gozitans (37.4%).

Facebook has become the preferred news source among Maltese

Newspaper portal links on Facebook have become Malta's preferred means to news. Online newspaper portals themselves have seriously dropped in relevance, from 41.6% of respondents going to this source in 2021 to 17.4% of respondents in 2026.Links on social media are by far the preferred news source for the youngest adult demographic. 16-25 year olds cited online portal links on Facebook as their number one source (68.2%), followed by links on Instagram (63.5%), and links on TikTok (52.0%). This entire demographic said it is on social media.

Other conclusions

This year's State of the Nation had other significant conclusions.Resistance or openness to foreigners varies with age; while younger people were found to be most threatened by foreigners in Malta, it seems that the older people are, the more they recognise that the country needs foreign workers and are thus more open to them, said Marmarà.

He noted how youths, in recent years, have gone from among the most open age demographics towards foreigners to now the age group showing the most resistance towards their presence in the Maltese islands, and on their integration here.Overall, 38% of respondents do not believe that foreigners should come to Malta to fill employment gaps that Maltese people do not want to work.

In addition, while the country's population has nearly doubled since 1950, the country's all-time-low fertility rate currently sits below less than half the substitution level, i.e., the rate of births required for population numbers to break even across generations. 

Survey methodology

This year's State of the Nation survey was carried out three weeks after this year's general election, during what Marmarà called a neutral period. 1,064 Maltese and Gozitan citizens of at least 16 years of age participated in this survey - same amount as last year - to give this survey a margin of error of +/-3%.

This annual study was centred around the theme of the Maltese population and our nation in 50 years' time. The statistician said that this survey looks to better understand the thoughts of Maltese and Gozitans so that the country could be better equipped to address them down the line.

In her opening address, President Myriam Spiteri Debono noted that this State of the Nation survey relates to the same themes discussed in years' past, so that people can observe the fluctuations to the same questions along the years.

She observed that the country's population continues to increase and through the ethnic, economic, educational, and other societal changes that come with population growth, different realities with ever-changing needs and aspects bring about new challenges.