Twenty Malta facts, every one with its source

I like a list of facts when every one can be checked, and I can’t stand the ones that recycle legends with no source. So here are twenty Malta facts with their official origin alongside, no world’s tallest this or record-breaking that. I’ve grouped them by what they tell you about the place.

A state with some unusual quirks

The first genuinely surprised me. Valletta has been the capital for as long as anyone remembers, yet it wasn’t written into the Constitution until Act XXXIX of 2025 added an article naming Il-Belt Valletta, with its title of Città Umilissima. The same Act made 27 December National Anthem Day, which I cover in the Malta national anthem.

The Constitution has more. Article 1 declares Malta a neutral state and bans any foreign military base on its territory. Article 3 doesn’t just describe the flag, it records the date George VI awarded the George Cross, 15 April 1942. And article 5 makes Maltese the language of the courts, even though English is also official.

Things that will feel familiar

British visitors will notice the family resemblance straight away. Cars drive on the left and the sockets take the same three-pin plugs as at home. Heritage Malta has a lovely footnote to that shared history. The Main Guard, across the square from the Grandmaster’s Palace in Valletta, was used by the British from 1814, and soldiers painted its walls right up to 1972. And when Malta became a republic in 1974, it did so within the Commonwealth, so it still shares that club with the UK.

The Maltese cross, meanwhile, isn’t on the flag at all. It’s on the €1 and €2 coins Malta has minted since 2008, as I explain in the Maltese cross. And the famous Order of Malta keyhole with its view of St Peter’s isn’t in Malta either, but on the Aventine Hill in Rome. My favourite footnote is the rent. According to Spain’s foreign ministry, when Malta was handed to the Knights in 1530, they paid it with one falcon a year to the Viceroy of Sicily.

Numbers that don’t fit such a small country

Mdina, the walled town that turns up in every photo, had just 201 residents in the NSO’s 2025 count, the smallest population of any locality. The capital isn’t the largest either. Valletta has 5,189 residents and St Paul’s Bay 43,095. At the other extreme is Senglea, with 15,060 people per km², the highest density in Malta. There’s more in Malta’s population.

Comino, the third inhabited island, has just two residents according to the Ministry for Gozo. Its Blue Lagoon, though, once drew 12,000 people at once in summer 2024, and since 2025 it has required a free booking with a cap of 4,000.

Ancient, in pocket size

UNESCO ranks the megalithic temples among the world’s oldest free-standing stone buildings, dating them to the fourth and third millennia BC. Għar Dalam goes back further still, a cave holding bones of Ice Age elephants and hippos, the oldest more than 160,000 years old. And at Bidnija there’s a protected grove of olive trees around 500 years old, of a variety with its own genetic signature.

The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum deserves its own paragraph. It holds the only prehistoric wall paintings ever found in Malta, red ochre spirals, and a niche that echoes when you speak. Visits are capped at 10 people at once to keep carbon dioxide, temperature and humidity in check.

Oddities from more recent centuries

Heritage Malta has a handful of facts I’d save for a dinner party. The Inquisition was in Malta for over 224 years and used torture in fewer than 1% of cases. Fort Delimara keeps four 38-ton guns, the last in the world still on their original carriages and platforms. The Old Prison in Gozo’s Citadel has the largest collection of historical graffiti in the islands. And Rabat’s Domvs Romana, built in 1881-1882, was the first building in Malta designed purely to protect an archaeological site.

The last one is recent. The boot Düsseldorf Dive Awards of January 2025 named Malta the world’s best diving destination, according to the Malta Tourism Authority. Not bad for a country of 316 km², a figure I break down in how big Malta is. For the bigger picture, start with whether Malta is a country or my Malta travel guide.