The top 10% of Malta’s population now control €47 billion, according to recent data from the Central Bank of Malta, highlighting a stark concentration of wealth. This group owns nearly 90% of the nation’s business assets, reflecting a significant disparity in wealth distribution.

The data, sourced from the European Central Bank’s Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA), shows that the wealthiest 10% possess 44.8% of Malta’s total household net wealth. In contrast, the bottom 50% hold just €12.6 billion, or roughly 12% of total net wealth.

Since 2010, the net wealth of the top 10% has surged by 160.7%, compared to a 94.1% increase for the bottom half of households. This wealth gap has grown as the overall household wealth in Malta more than doubled, from €59.8 billion in 2010 to €105.3 billion by the end of 2023. Consequently, the share of net wealth held by the top 10% increased from 39.7% to 44.8%, while the bottom 50% saw their share decrease from 14.3% to 12% during this period.

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Similarly, the wealth share of the top 5% of households rose from 26.6% in 2010 to 31.7% in 2023. Despite these trends, Malta’s wealth Gini coefficient, which measures inequality, only slightly increased from 0.54 to 0.59 between 2010 and 2023, still below the euro area average of 0.72, ranking Malta as the third least unequal country in the region.

The wealthiest 10% in Malta have a more diversified asset portfolio, with 24% in business assets, and they hold 89.1% of all business wealth in the country. Meanwhile, households in the bottom 50% have seen their debt rise, particularly in mortgages, which now account for 65.6% of total household debt, up from 47.5% in 2010. In contrast, the debt held by the top 10% has remained stable at €1.3 billion over the past decade.

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The report, authored by economists Warren Deguara and Janica Borg, emphasizes the need for ongoing monitoring and potential policy measures to address the growing wealth disparity, even as Malta’s overall net wealth continues to rise.