Most of Malta's economic growth over the past decade came from a growing population, not from higher productivity.

The Malta Chamber's figures support the argument. Of the growth in Malta's economy between 2015 and 2025, by far the largest part came from more people working, and only a small part from higher productivity.

What the Chamber found

In its proposals for the 2026 to 2031 legislature, published in May 2026, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry broke down the growth in gross value added (GVA), the value of what the economy produces, between 2015 and 2025. GVA grew by 81.9%, from €10,151 million to €18,460 million.

Of those 81.9 percentage points, 68.9 came from an expanding workforce, 9.9 from a shift towards higher value-added sectors, and only 3.1 from improvements in productivity.

Total GVAMore workersSector shiftProductivity

Put another way, more workers account for €6,992 million of the €8,309 million increase, about 84%. Productivity accounts for €310 million, under 4%. The Chamber's Human Capital report, by Professors Rose Marie Azzopardi and Alexiei Dingli, reached the same conclusion in April 2026: growth "has been largely driven by workforce expansion rather than productivity gains".

Workers, not population

The study measures employment growth, not population growth directly. Employment can also increase when more existing residents enter the workforce. In Malta most of the extra workers in this period came from abroad: the Budget speech puts the rise in foreign workers between 2015 and 2025 at about 106,000, out of about 130,000. The two are closely linked, but they are not the same measure.

The argument is therefore supported by the evidence, although the reference to population growth is not entirely precise.