Useful facts and figures about Malta.

Economy
Malta produces only about 20% of its food needs, has limited fresh water supplies, and has few domestic energy sources. Malta’s geographic position between the EU and Africa makes it a target for illegal immigration, which has strained Malta’s political and economic resources. Malta adopted the euro on January 1, 2008.

Malta’s financial services industry has grown in recent years and in 2008-09 it escaped significant damage from the international financial crisis, largely because the sector is centred on the indigenous real estate market and is not highly leveraged. Locally, the restricted damage from the financial crisis has been attributed to the stability of the Maltese banking system and to its prudent risk-management practices.

The global economic downturn and high electricity and water prices have hurt Malta’s real economy, which is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing – especially electronics and pharmaceuticals – and tourism. Following a few years of modest growth, Malta’s economy contracted by 2.2% in 2009, and the Maltese government took steps to provide direct grants to struggling local businesses.

Country name: Republic of Malta (conventional long form); Malta (conventional short form)
Location: Southern Europe, islands in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily (Italy)
Area: 316 sq km in total
Transport – airports: 1 (2010)
Ports and terminals: Marsaxlokk (Malta Freeport), Valletta
Currency: euro
GDP (purchasing power parity): $24,300 (2009 est)
Language: Maltese (official) 90.2%; English (official) 6%; multilingual 3%; other 0.8% (2005 est)
Population: 405,165 (2010 est)
Population growth: 0.4% (2010 est)
Literacy (age 15 and over can read and write): 92.8% of the total population
Net migration rate: 2.02 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2010 est)
Nationality: noun: Maltese (singular and plural); adjective: Maltese
Land use: arable land: 31.25%; permanent crops: 3.13%; other: 65.62% (2005 est)
Ethnic groups: Maltese (descendants of ancient Carthaginians and Phoenicians with strong elements of Italian and other Mediterranean stock)
Religions: Roman Catholic 98%
International country code: 356
Broadcast media: 1 publicly owned television station, Television Malta (TVM); several national television stations, 2 of which are owned by political parties; Italian and British broadcast programmes are available; multi-channel cable and satellite TV services are obtainable; publicly owned radio broadcaster operates 2 stations; roughly 50 commercial radio stations functioning
Internet country code: .mt