This is the biggest budget ever for healthcare.
Deborah Schembri
Government health spending in Malta has risen almost every year since 1995. Eurostat puts it at €1,155.2 million in 2024, its highest on record. The 2027 Financial Estimates allocate €1,540.3 million to the health vote, about €1,599 million on Eurostat's measure, higher again.How we reached this verdict ↓
Analysis and evaluation
Government health spending in Malta has risen almost every year since 1995, and the 2027 Budget puts it at its highest on record. Eurostat's figures run to 2024, when spending reached €1,155.2 million. The 2027 Financial Estimates allocate €1,540.3 million to the health vote, which comes to about €1,599 million on Eurostat's measure.
Thirty years of health spending
Spending fell in only three years in the series: 2007, 2009 and 2022, when it dropped from €1,013 million to €982 million as pandemic spending wound down. The biggest single rise came in 2020, from €744 million to €947 million.
The budget figures for 2025 to 2027
Eurostat has not yet published health spending for 2025 onwards. The 2027 Financial Estimates give exact figures for the health vote: actual spending for 2025, the revised estimate for 2026 and the budget estimate for 2027.
| Year | Recurrent (Vote 11) | Capital (Vote V) | Health vote | Adjusted to Eurostat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 (actual) | €1,142.9m | €83.5m | €1,226.4m | €1,273.5m |
| 2026 (revised) | €1,267.5m | €112.0m | €1,379.5m | €1,432.5m |
| 2027 (estimate) | €1,339.7m | €200.5m | €1,540.3m | €1,599.4m |
Source: Ministry for Finance, Financial Estimates 2027. The approved estimate for 2026, before revision, was €1,347.2m.
Eurostat counts slightly more as health spending than the health vote does. In 2024 it recorded €1,155.2 million, against a health vote of €1,112.5 million (€1,042.2 million recurrent and €70.3 million capital), a ratio of 1.038. We applied the same ratio to 2025 to 2027 so that the whole series is on one measure. On either measure, 2027 is the highest.
Eurostat figures, 1995 to 2024
| Year | Health spending |
|---|---|
| 1995 | €108.1m |
| 1996 | €123.1m |
| 1997 | €146.1m |
| 1998 | €157.8m |
| 1999 | €168.6m |
| 2000 | €208.4m |
| 2001 | €219.5m |
| 2002 | €257.2m |
| 2003 | €265.7m |
| 2004 | €275.1m |
| 2005 | €308.6m |
| 2006 | €325.6m |
| 2007 | €315.6m |
| 2008 | €322.7m |
| 2009 | €315.0m |
| 2010 | €352.3m |
| 2011 | €376.3m |
| 2012 | €402.3m |
| 2013 | €442.9m |
| 2014 | €492.1m |
| 2015 | €547.2m |
| 2016 | €567.1m |
| 2017 | €620.3m |
| 2018 | €673.4m |
| 2019 | €743.9m |
| 2020 | €947.1m |
| 2021 | €1,013.1m |
| 2022 | €981.9m |
| 2023 | €1,053.9m |
| 2024 | €1,155.2m |
Source: Eurostat, general government expenditure on health (gov_10a_exp, GF07), Malta.
Editorial note
How we assessed this claim
We used Eurostat's measure of general government expenditure on health, which runs from 1995 to 2024 on a consistent basis.
For 2025 to 2027 we used the exact health vote in the Financial Estimates 2027, recurrent and capital, adjusted to the Eurostat measure by the ratio between the two in 2024 (1.038).
Mostly true rather than True, because the 2027 figure is a budget estimate, not actual spending.
Limitations
- The figures cover health only. Elderly care cannot be separated from pensions in Eurostat's data.
- Actual spending in 2025 to 2027 may differ from the estimates.
Sources
- Eurostat, general government expenditure by function (gov_10a_exp), Malta, health (GF07)
- Ministry for Finance, Financial Estimates 2027, Vote 11 (health, recurrent) and Vote V (health ministry, capital)
- Budget Speech 2027, Hon. Clyde Caruana, 26 October 2026