Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe, located in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya. It lies 80 km south of Sicily (Italy), 284 km east of Tunisia, and 333 km north of Libya. The official languages are Maltese and English.

History

Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the centre of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, with a succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, French, and British, amongst others.

Demographics

With a population of about 535,000 over an area of 316 sq km, Malta is the world's tenth-smallest country by area and fifth most densely populated sovereign country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area and population. According to the data from Demography 2023 edition by Eurostat, the population density of Malta was observed to be the highest in the EU, with 1,657 persons per km², and according to the United Nations, ESPON and EU Commission, "the whole territory of Malta constitutes a single urban region". Malta increasingly is referred to as a city-state, and also listed in rankings concerning cities or metropolitan areas.

Malta became a British colony in 1813, serving as a way station for ships and the headquarters for the British Mediterranean Fleet. It was besieged by the Axis powers during World War II and was an important Allied base for operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean. The British parliament passed the Malta Independence Act in 1964, giving Malta independence from the United Kingdom as the State of Malta, with Elizabeth II as its queen. The country became a republic in 1974. It has been a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations since independence, and joined the European Union in 2004; it became part of the eurozone monetary union in 2008.