In 2025, tourism contributed an additional 50,767 persons to Malta's mid-year resident population, bringing the effective population to 632,011, the NSO said Thursday.
In 2025, the usually resident mid-year population was estimated at 581,244. When accounting for the presence of tourists, on average over the entire year, this increased by 50,767, reaching an effective population of 632,011. Due to the seasonal nature of tourism, the effective population fluctuates on a monthly basis. While keeping the resident population count constant to the value of the mid-year estimate, during the lowest tourism month (December), the effective population stood at 594,428 (13,184 tourists).
During the peak tourism month (August), the effective population increased by an additional 90,332 tourists reaching 671,576. This is a difference in the effective population of 77,148 (13.0 per cent) between the highest and lowest tourism months in 2025.
The impact of the tourist population on the resident population can be expressed in terms of tourism intensity. Tourism intensity is here defined as the ratio of nights spent at all forms of tourist accommodation per 100 residents per day. Annual tourism intensity was 8.7 in 2025, meaning that for every 100 residents there were approximately 9 tourists. This is an increase of one tourist for every 100 residents when compared to 2024. Seasonality has a marked impact on tourism intensity. In 2025, tourism intensity reached 15.5 in August, while in December it was 2.3. This means that in the peak tourism month there were 13 more tourists per 100 residents compared to the month with the least tourism (December).
Apart from varying seasonally, tourism intensity also varies geographically. The Northern Harbour district is the largest district in terms of the resident population and has the largest average annual tourist population. In turn it had the largest effective population in 2025. When considering tourism intensity however, the Northern district surpasses the Northern Harbour district with a value of 15.3 compared to 14.6, meaning that there is approximately 1 more tourist per 100 residents in the Northern district compared to the Northern Harbour district.
Geographical variations become more pronounced when analysing tourism intensity at the locality level. San Ġiljan had the highest tourism intensity in 2025 with 83 tourists for every 100 residents (82.9), this was followed by Valletta (80.5). When comparing to the previous year, Valletta had the largest increase in terms of tourism intensity, increasing from 69.9 to 80.5. This means that there were 11 more tourists for every 100 residents in Valletta in 2025 compared to 2024.
The impact of the tourism population can also be measured in terms of the size of the geographical area. Population density measures the number of persons per kilometre squared and the impact of tourism on population density can be assessed by calculating density using the effective population. The total mid-year resident population density in 2025 was 1,845 residents per kilometre squared. When considering the average annual tourist population this increased to 2,006 persons per kilometre squared. At the district level the most pronounced impact is seen in the Northern Harbour district. The mid-year resident population density in 2025 was 7,718 residents per kilometre squared. When considering the average number of tourists in 2025 in this district, this increased by 1,127 persons for every kilometre squared, reaching 8,845.
Among localities experiencing the highest tourism volumes, population density increased notably when considering the tourist population. The resident mid-year population density in Tas-Sliema in 2025 was 17,703 residents per kilometre squared, which increased to 25,268 persons per kilometre squared when accounting for the average annual tourism population in the locality. While Il-Gżira had a lower effective population density value compared to Tas-Sliema in 2025 (16,425), it had the largest increase in absolute terms when considering the number of tourists per kilometre squared - 3,809 persons.
Seasonal differences in the top tourism localities
During the peak month of August, San Ġiljan had the highest tourism intensity, reaching 143.0 tourists for every 100 residents, an increase of 16.5 when compared to 2024. Valletta followed with a tourism intensity of 98.5, an increase of 16.4 over the previous year.
In terms of effective population during the peak month, San Pawl Il-Baħar's estimate stood at 59,444, followed by Tas-Sliema with 37,614, increases of 1.6 and 7.7 per cent over 2024, respectively.
In the low tourism month of December, tourism intensity was highest in Valletta (55.9), though considerably lower than the value seen in August (98.5).
Population density in the peak tourism month of August increases considerably in localities experiencing high tourism volumes. Tas-Sliema had the highest population density in 2025 when considering the tourist and resident population at 29,023 persons per kilometre square. This is an increase of 11,320 people per kilometre square on top of the resident population.
For San Ġiljan, while the overall effective population density in August was lower than Tas-Sliema, the increase in density was larger, with an additional 13,702 persons per kilometre square. Population density remained the highest in Tas-Sliema in the low tourism month of December though the increase in population density when accounting for tourists was approximately two times less than in August.