People of Malta
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 690,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Malta 395,969(Maltese descent only) |
|
 Australia
|
163,990 |
 United States
|
43,831 (2012) |
 United Kingdom
|
40,230 (Maltese-born) |
 Canada
|
38,780 |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Italians, Spaniards, Britons | |
|
a. ^ The total figure is merely an estimation; sum of all the referenced populations. |
|
The Maltese (Maltese: Maltin) are an ethnic group indigenous to Malta, and identified with the Maltese language. Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Included within the ethnic group defined by the Maltese people are the Gozitans (Maltese: Għawdxin) who inhabit Malta's sister island, Gozo.
The current Maltese people, characterised by the use of the Maltese language and by Roman Catholicism, is the descendant - through much mixing and hybridation - of the Siculo-Arabic colonists who repopulated the Maltese islands in the beginning of the second millennium after a two-century lapse of depopulation that followed the Arab conquest by the Aghlabids in AD 870. A genetic study by Capelli et al. indicates that Malta was barely inhabited at the turn of the tenth century and was likely to have been repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic. Previous inhabitants of the islands - Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines - did not leave many traces, as most nameplaces were lost and replaced. The Normans conquered the island in 1091 and completely re-Christianised them by 1249.
The influences on the population after this have been fiercely debated among historians and geneticists. The origins question is complicated by numerous factors, including Malta's turbulent history of invasions and conquests, with long periods of depopulation followed by periods of immigration to Malta and intermarriage with the Maltese by foreigners from the Mediterranean, Western and Southern European countries that ruled Malta. The many demographic influences on the island include:
...
Wikipedia