A study of mortality in the Maltese Islands

Abstract

This thesis is the report of a study undertaken in order to improve existant knowledge about local mortality. Death statistics are a useful tool for various purposes mostly for making analysis of past population changes. Broadly speaking these statistics are needed for purposes of demographic studies and for public health administration. Forecasting mortality is also useful since, nowadays, it is widely used in actuarial applications. Before starting, it would be convenient to take a look how demographic mortality data is gathered. The National Statistics Office (NSO), formerly known as the Central Office of Statistics (COS), is responsible for the collection of demographic statistics in Malta. In 1863, the national government introduced the civil status. From that time onwards different types of acts and legislations such as death, birth and also marriage certificates began to be used. In 1872, an official publication called "Blue Book", featured a Statistical view of Malta and its Dependencies for the last ten years, (1863 to 1872). This covered the relevent time series for population, education, finance, sale of public sites, imports and shipping. In 1947 the NSO was founded. It is governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act, 2000. The National Statistics Office in Malta publishes the main demographic events registered in the Maltese Islands, such as population and deaths every year, in a "Demographic Yearbook". At NSO, demography falls under the category of Social Statistics. The first demographic review in Malta was for the year 1959. It can be noticed that before 1959, the NSO still used to publish a small booklet called "Vital Statistics". Most of the collection of these demographic reviews can be found at the National Statistics Office Library. The estimation for the Maltese Population is census based. The last population census for the Maltese Islands took place on the 15th November 1995. The Maltese population is estimated every year on the 31 st December. In this thesis, the Maltese population by sex and age for the period 1960-2000 is going to be used throughout.