Cost of living in Malta

Everything a household buys
93.1 index, EU average = 100
Year
2024
Source
Eurostat

Malta has a price level of 93.1 where the European Union average is 100, measured for 2024. A household basket there costs about 7 percent less than the same basket across the Union.

Twelve spending categories are published for this country, so the breakdown below is measured rather than inferred from the headline.

The spread inside the basket is wider than the headline suggests. Education is the most expensive category at 130.2, and Housing, water and energy the least at 80.1.

Malta: prices rose 2.4 percent over the year to 2024, so the figures above will have drifted a little since they were recorded.

Malta is the 21 cheapest of the 39 countries this source measures on the same scale, which places it in the dearer half of that group.

On the same scale it sits between Slovenia at 91 and Cyprus at 95.1, which is the company that a rank of 21 out of 39 puts it in.

Directly comparable with 38 other countries measured on the same scale.

A price level is not a budget. It compares a standard basket between countries and takes no account of what you earn, of the difference between the capital and a small town, or of what a newcomer pays for rent as opposed to what a sitting tenant pays. Read it as a starting point for a comparison, not as a figure to plan around.

Everything a household buys

MeasureValueYear
Food and soft drinks112.22024
Alcohol and tobacco99.22024
Clothing and shoes101.52024
Housing, water and energy80.12024
Furniture and household goods105.32024
Health92.82024
Transport82.62024
Phone and internet106.72024
Recreation and culture94.52024
Education130.22024
Restaurants and hotels88.72024
Other goods and services89.12024

Questions

Malta: is it an expensive country to live in?

Measured against the reference this figure uses, the price level is 93.1 for 2024. That is the whole answer this page can give honestly, because a price level says what a basket costs and not what your life costs.

What year is this figure from?

It is the value recorded for 2024. Price level statistics are annual and always lag, so this is the most recent one published rather than a figure for today.

Can I compare this with another country here?

Only with countries measured on the same scale. This one is quoted as index, EU average = 100, and a country quoted on the other scale is not comparable with it without a conversion nobody has measured.

Related pages

Sources

  • Eurostat, prc_ppp_ind (Eurostat reuse policy, commercial reuse permitted with attribution)