Malta’s Future: The Children That Never Came
Every now and then, a politician says something that doesn’t just bounce off your ears — it crawls inside your head and refuses to leave. That’s what happened when Finance Minister Clyde Caruana recently spoke about Malta’s demographic future.
He didn’t coat it in glitter. He didn’t hide behind statistics. He said it plainly: Malta is heading towards decline. A shrinking population. An ageing society. An economy wobbling under the weight of it all.
It was equal parts fascinating and terrifying. Fascinating because, at last, someone dared to spell it out. Terrifying because deep down, we already know he’s right.
Why aren’t we having children?
That’s the real question. Why are young couples delaying family life, or avoiding it altogether? Why are so many twenty- and thirty-somethings who would love to raise children quietly putting it off year after year?
The answer is heartbreakingly simple: life is just too much.
A country of tired faces
Look around. Malta is full of exhausted people. People dragging themselves to work at seven in the morning, coming back after seven at night, and collapsing in a heap. And for what? A wage that barely covers rent, food, bills, and petrol.
Andrew Azzopardi captured it well when he wrote about young doctors. Their basic pay is pitiful. So they’re pushed into endless overtime and brutal on-call shifts. Their lives become a blur of fluorescent lights, hospital corridors, and exhaustion.
But this isn’t just about doctors. It’s teachers. Architects. Engineers. Lawyers. Nurses. Ordinary workers. Anyone who tries to carve out a living in this so-called “booming economy.”
It’s about a young couple who barely see each other awake because their jobs swallow them whole. It’s about evenings that vanish into cooking, washing, and paying bills. By the time there’s a moment to breathe, the day is gone.
Now, ask yourself: where do children fit into this picture?
The cruel tick of the clock
Biology is merciless. We all know it. Fertility peaks early. Complications increase with age. Yet life keeps pushing the family further down the road.
First, you’re trying to build a career. Then you’re trying to scrape together a deposit for a flat. Then you’re trying to pay off loans. Then you’re trying to survive the cost of living.
Before you know it, you’re 35. You’re tired. You’re scared. You ask yourself: Can I really bring a child into this chaos? Can I give them stability? Will I even have the energy left?
And for many, the answer is no. Not because they don’t want children. But because the weight of reality crushes the dream.
The price of survival
Let’s talk money. Rent has exploded. Housing prices are eye-watering. Food, fuel, bills — all climbing. Wages? Crawling along behind like a limping donkey.
Even in “respectable” professions, salaries don’t match the responsibility or the workload. Doctors, lawyers, architects — people who should be secure — are often barely scraping by after mortgages and bills.
This isn’t about luxury. It’s about survival. And when survival itself eats nearly every euro you earn, the idea of children becomes less about joy and more about financial suicide.
A state of contradictions
Here’s the part that makes your head spin. On one side, government officials warn that Malta’s birth rate is collapsing. On the other hand, voices are pushing for easier access to abortion.
So let me get this straight. We’re panicking because we’re not having enough children — but we’re also making it easier to have fewer? That’s like hearing your house is on fire and then deciding to pour petrol on it.
It’s confusion dressed as policy. And it leaves couples even more adrift, wondering what kind of country they’re meant to be raising a family in.
The future that haunts us
Picture Malta in a few decades if nothing changes. Schools are closing because there aren’t enough children. Empty playgrounds. Streets filled with the elderly, shuffling through lives that once burned bright. An economy propped up not by energy and innovation, but by imported labour and desperate patches.
Is this the Malta we want? An island of memories, echoing with the laughter of children who were never born?
What needs to change
Clyde Caruana is right to sound the alarm. But alarms don’t fix fires. Concern doesn’t change reality.
What Malta needs is reform — deep, serious reform.
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Wages that actually reflect the cost of living.
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Working hours that leave space for family and rest.
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Housing that doesn’t demand your soul, your savings, and your sanity.
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Real support for young couples, so that starting a family feels possible, not reckless.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about the future of an entire country. Because without change, Malta won’t just be facing decline — we’ll be living it.
And one day, when we look back at the silence in our homes, the empty bedrooms, the missing laughter, we’ll realise the greatest tragedy: we didn’t fail because people didn’t want children. We failed because we made it impossible for them to have them.
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