MISCO survey: Malta’s traffic and cost of living top list of concern for Maltese

The traffic situation and the cost of living are currently the top reasons for concern for most according to misco’s latest survey Public Concerns, a survey carried out to gauge the level of public concern on a range of issues.

87% expressed concern about traffic, 83% of respondents expressed concern about the cost of living, 80% of respondents expressed concern about construction, 72% on the environment while 71% stated that they are very concerned or fairly concerned about corruption.

The specific issues tackled in this latest survey emerged in previous surveys about the main problems being faced by Malta and by individual persons.

The survey, conducted between 18 and 20 May, also found out how 43% of respondents are very concerned or fairly concerned about the health sector in Malta and that 45% are concerned about the education sector in Malta.

“A deeper analysis of the data, according to gender, showed us that concern about the health sector and traffic is fairly similar between males and females but on the other hand, the level of concern among females about education, construction, the environment, cost of living and corruption is higher than the level expressed by males,” explains Lawrence Zammit, founder and director of misco.

“Additionally, if we had to look at the data in terms of age, persons aged under 35 years expressed a higher level of concern about construction, the environment, cost of living, corruption and education than older persons. With regard to health and education, the level of concern expressed was similar to that by older respondents.”

This survey was conducted among a random sample of 401 respondents. Interviews were conducted using computer-aided telephone interviewing. Respondents were randomly selected using a random digit-dialling methodology.

Data was weighted according to age, gender and region. Weighting is used to adjust the results of a study to bring them more in line with what is known about a population. A sample of 401 respondents provides a margin of error within +/- 5%.

The tables below provides information on the level of concern expressed by respondents on each of these issues.

General table

Issue	% very concerned or fairly concerned	% not so concerned or not concerned at all
Health	43%	57%
Education	45%	55%
Corruption	71%	29%
Environment	72%	28%
Construction	80%	20%
Cost of living	83%	17%
Traffic	87%	13%

Table with Results according to age

Issue	% very concerned or fairly concerned 16 – 34 years	% very concerned or fairly concerned 35 – 54 years	% very concerned or fairly concerned 55 years and over
Health	42%	45%	42%
Education	54%	47%	35%
Corruption	77%	75%	63%
Environment	80%	71%	66%
Construction	85%	81%	71%
Cost of living	93%	88%	71%
Traffic	92%	88%	84%