Malta’s birth rate has hit one of its lowest points on record: hovering around 1.1 children per woman, the lowest in the EU, according to Eurostat. That means most families in Malta are having just one child, or none at all.

Of course, anyone with an ounce of critical thinking in this country would recognise that this is hardly surprising. Raising a family in Malta has become… difficult. Housing costs are through the roof, work hours are long (some even working part-time alongside their full-time role), and the pace of life leaves little space for… well, life.

For years, free childcare has been held up as Malta’s big success story, as a policy meant to help parents (especially mothers) return to work without having to worry about childcare costs and where to leave their children in the face of a growing population, when chances are grandparents are still working. Sure enough, childcare has been one solution. But with birth rates this low, it’s worth asking: is free childcare enough? Or are we overlooking the families who value (or need) a different kind of support?

The Reality Behind “Choice”

The truth is that most families in Malta don’t get to choose between staying home or working. The cost of living makes that choice for them. Even with free childcare, two full-time incomes are often the only way to survive. That means parents go back to work sooner than they would like, not necessarily out of ambition, but out of necessity.

So while the policy looks like empowerment on paper, in practice it mainly supports one type of family: the dual-income one.

What About Families Who’d Rather Stay Home?

In Malta, when it comes to parental leave, we are currently at the minimum entitlement of 4 months per parent (two months of which are paid… at the rate corresponding to the sickness benefit under the Social Security Act) until the child turns 8 years of age. Moreover, 2022 regulation (per EU policy), introduced the right to request flexible working arrangements for parents of children under 8 and carers’ leave (5 unpaid days per year) for caring for relatives. The right to request does not mean you are automatically entitled to any flexible working arrangement. Moreover, the parental leave entitlement is not applied by default. Quite often, workers entitled to this need to go through hoops to benefit from it.

It is very clear that people are questioning the status quo, and where we’re headed. Here’s what’s missing from the national conversation: some parents value and want to stay home with their children, at least during the early years. However, right now, nothing accommodates this choice, with almost no financial recognition of that choice. There are no tax credits for stay-at-home parents, no stipends and no flexible middle ground.

The “problem” – critics would surmise – is that subsidising stay-at-home parents could discourage women from working and, as some would be quick to add, the economy, needs both women and men to work to maintain it. But what is real equality? Real equality means the freedom of choice and that means not being forced back to work (full-time or otherwise) because the system only supports one model of family life.

Let’s Not Forget Self-Employed Persons

Interestingly, 94% of Malta’s businesses are micro-enterprises (employing 10 or less), according to the same Eurostat document (Key Figures on Europe 2025 Edition). What does this mean? This means a large chunk of people in business for themselves have to do a lot of work themselves and are not in a position to let their business go. What happens if you go on maternity leave? Do you lose out on all your clients? At the same time, can you realistically develop your business further when you’ve just had a baby? Are we asking self-employed workers to put their livelihood on the backburner?

A More Balanced Approach

It doesn’t have to be a tug-of-war between policies. A modern family policy could, and should, recognise that both working and caregiving are valuable.

That could look like:

• Tax credits or financial support for one-income households with young children.
• Increased maternity, paternity and parental leave.
• Incentives for flexible or part-time work. This could also mean incentivising companies to allow for hybrid and flexible working arrangements and not only have them on paper.
• Continued childcare subsidies for parents who choose to return to work, as well as subsidies that help parents who choose to stay at home. People who do not send their children to childcare, could be compensated pro rata.

Supporting families in Malta (or anywhere, for that matter) shouldn’t be about enabling work, it should be about enabling life. Of course, we work to live not live to work. At the end of the day, today we are raising tomorrow’s generation of workers and at this rate there will be no one left to raise.

So, What Do Families in Malta Need Most?

The question Malta’s next budget needs to ask isn’t just “how do we get more parents back to work?” but “how do we make it possible for families in Malta to thrive…however they define that?”.

Until that happens, the country’s low birth rate won’t just be a statistic. It’ll be a symptom of a system that forgot families are more than an economic unit.

Do you agree? Send us your comments via [email protected]