Rising cost of living the top concern for Maltese, new Eurobarometer finds

A new Eurobarometer has found that inflation and the rising cost of living is the top concern for the Maltese public, both on a national level and a personal level.

The survey found that the public is only getting more concerned about the issue: the share of people who cited inflation and rising prices as a key concern has increased when compared to the last Eurobarometer, which was taken in March and April 2025.

There were parallels when people were asked what they felt the two most important issues facing the country were and what they felt the two most important issues facing them personally were.

In both categories, respondents pointed towards “rising prices / inflation / cost of living” as the most significant issue.

40% named this as one of the most important issues that the country is facing – up by five percentage points from last March and nine percentage points higher than the EU average.

61% meanwhile said that rising prices is one of the two most significant challenges that they are facing on a personal level – up by a staggering 16 percentage points when compared to last March, and 13 percentage points higher than the EU average.

Immigration and the environment were also high in the list of people’s concerns.

Immigration was the second most cited challenge when people were asked for the most significant issues facing the country were, with 30% of respondents naming it, while the environment was the third most cited challenge for the country, with 26% of respondents naming it.

Concern on both of these areas has increased significantly during the year: the share of people who cited immigration as a significant issue increased by 10 percentage points when compared to March 2025, and the share of people who cited the environment as a significant issue increased by 8 percentage points.

In both cases, the share of people concerned far outstripped the EU average: while 30% of Maltese cited immigration as a key issue, the EU average stood at 15%, and while 26% of Maltese cited the environment as a key issue, only 8% in the EU did.

17% of Maltese said that they saw government debt as a key issue, followed by 16% who cited housing as such, 12% who cited health, 9% who cited education and another 9% who cited threats to democracy.

There were other areas where the Maltese people were far less concerned than their European counterparts, however.  Only 5% of Maltese respondents said that the economic situation was a significant issue, compared to an EU average of 19%, while only 3% of Maltese respondents cited security and defence as a key issue, compared to an EU average of 13%.

When asked about concerns on a personal level, while the cost of living dominated concerns (61% of respondents citing it), the environment ranked second (26%), followed by health (19%), immigration (13%), living conditions (13%), and housing (11%).

At EU level, the concerns of Maltese were largely in line with those of their European peers.

The most cited issue was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with 33% of Maltese respondents citing this as one of the most important issues facing the EU at the moment – a figure actually 7 percentage points higher than the EU average.

This was followed by immigration (25%), security and defence (21%), the conflict in the Middle East (18%), and the “international situation” (18%).

57% of Maltese said that they have trust in the European Union – up by five percentage points when compared to six months ago and nine percentage points higher than the EU average.

Respondents were also asked how much they trusted certain types of media.

Radio and television were mediums most trusted by respondents: in both cases, 47% of Maltese said that they tended to trust these two types of media.

This was followed by the written press, which registered 42% in trust, and then websites (36%) and online social networks (just 18%).

50% of respondents said that they were satisfied with how democracy works in Malta – up by six percentage points when compared to six months ago, and five percentage points higher than the EU average.

A total of 92% of respondents said that they were satisfied with their lives, a figure which was down by two percentage points when compared to the last time the survey was taken six months ago.

The figure remains above the EU average for life satisfaction of 86%.

96% of Maltese people said that, taking everything into account they feel that Malta has benefitted from being a member of the EU, and 69% of Maltese are optimistic about the future of the EU.