Countries
Malta
Also Known As Maltese
Europe
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Malta holds one of the world's densest concentrations of ancient religious architecture, including the megalithic temple complexes at Ggantija and Hagar Qim, which predate Stonehenge and Egypt's pyramids and are among the oldest freestanding religious structures known. The islands are traditionally associated with the shipwreck and mission of the apostle Paul, described in the New Testament Book of Acts, and Malta remains overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, with the faith embedded deeply in civic and public life. The Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military and charitable order, ruled Malta for over two centuries and left a distinct religious and architectural imprint still visible in Valletta. Malta's prehistoric temple culture, whose builders left no written record, is held in the atlas as a significant open question about the specific beliefs it expressed.
Facts
Law and State
Establishment StatusThe constitution names Roman Catholicism the religion of Malta and requires Catholic religious teaching in state schools, while separately guaranteeing freedom of conscience and worship for other faiths. State Funding MechanismMalta's constitution names Roman Catholicism the state religion and mandates Catholic instruction in state schools, and the state heavily subsidizes Church run schools through a joint state and Church foundation so that pupils pay no tuition, but clergy salaries themselves are not state funded: priests are paid from Church donations, collections and their own reduced pay scale rather than from the public purse. 4 Apostasy or Blasphemy LawMalta had criminalized the vilification of the Roman Catholic religion since 1933. Parliament abolished the offense on 12 July 2016, at the initiative of the justice minister, who argued that people in a democracy should be free to make fun of religion, and at the same time widened the crime of incitement to racial hatred to cover religious hatred as well. 4 Registration or Recognition RegimeThe constitution names Roman Catholicism the state religion, but no law requires any religious group, Catholic or otherwise, to register. A group may instead choose to register as a voluntary organization with the Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations, which asks for a signed committee resolution requesting registration, audited annual accounts and a forty euro fee; registered and unregistered religious groups alike may own property and hold the same underlying legal rights. 4 Concordat BasisA series of bilateral agreements between Malta and the Holy See, concluded between 1985 and 1993 and amended since, together set the Catholic Church's legal position: the Catholic Schools Agreement of 27 April 1985 and the Church Schools Convention of 28 November 1991 govern how Catholic schools operate, a July 1986 understanding and a 2018 addendum address state financing of Catholic religious instruction, a September 1988 protocol, revised in 1995, incorporated the Church's theology faculty into the University of Malta, a November 1989 agreement, modified in 2003, provides Catholic religious instruction in state schools, the November 1991 Temporal Goods Convention covers Church property, and an agreement of 3 February 1993, revised 27 January 2014, gives civil effect to canonical marriages and ecclesiastical tribunal decisions. Four of these were sealed and approved by Malta's Foreign Minister rather than ratified by Parliament, giving them lesser legal standing than Italy's or Poland's constitutionally entrenched concordats and making them comparatively easy for Malta to amend, as the 2014 marriage revision shows. 5 Demographics
Religious CompositionAbout 90% Catholic, among the most religiously homogeneous countries in Europe by formal affiliation, though practice among younger Maltese has declined (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1 Geography
LatitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement. LongitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement. Government
Government Type Sovereignty StatusSovereign UN member state 2 Established Year21 September 1964 (from the UK) Status
Legal StatusThe constitution names Roman Catholicism the religion of Malta and requires Catholic religious teaching in state schools while guaranteeing freedom of conscience for other faiths; abortion remains comprehensively restricted, unique among European Union member states. 3 Location
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Religion and History in Malta
Malta is overwhelmingly Catholic, among the most religiously homogeneous countries in Europe at around 90 percent by most estimates including Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, though religious practice among younger Maltese has declined notably in recent years even as formal affiliation remains high. Christianity's arrival in Malta is traditionally dated to St Paul's shipwreck on the island around 60 CE, an event recounted in the biblical Acts of the Apostles and central to Maltese national religious identity, commemorated annually and reflected in the island's exceptionally dense concentration of churches.
The Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military-religious order granted the island in 1530 by Emperor Charles V, ruled Malta for over two and a half centuries, building Valletta as a fortress capital explicitly conceived to defend Christian Europe against Ottoman naval power following the order's successful defense during the 1565 Great Siege of Malta, a landmark confrontation between Christian and Ottoman Muslim forces in the central Mediterranean. British colonial rule from 1814 introduced a small Protestant Anglican presence without displacing Catholic dominance, and Malta's 1964 independence constitution preserved Catholicism's established status inherited from centuries of uninterrupted Catholic institutional continuity.
Catholicism's Constitutional Establishment in Malta
Malta's constitution names Roman Catholicism the religion of Malta and requires Catholic religious teaching in state schools, though it simultaneously guarantees freedom of conscience and worship for other faiths, an establishment arrangement unusual within the European Union for its explicit constitutional wording rather than the more informal or partial establishment found in countries such as England or Denmark. Divorce remained illegal in Malta until a narrowly passed 2011 referendum, one of the last countries in Europe to permit it, reflecting the Catholic Church's sustained influence over Maltese family law and social policy well after most of Western Europe had liberalized comparable statutes; abortion remains entirely illegal in Malta even after 2023 amendments permitted narrow exceptions where the mother's life is at risk, making it the only European Union member state with such comprehensive restriction.
Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2017 despite continued Church opposition, illustrating a gradual but real loosening of Catholic institutional influence over Maltese law even as the Church retains a uniquely prominent constitutional and cultural position within the European Union. Malta's small Muslim and Orthodox communities have grown modestly through recent immigration.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
About 90% Catholic, among the most religiously homogeneous countries in Europe by formal affiliation.
This source names Malta directly: "Church-state relations there, unlike Malta, Poland or Slovakia, whose entries name theirs."
This source names Malta directly: "evidence that hunter-gatherers reached Malta by open water crossing roughly a thousand years before the first farmers arrived."
This source names Malta directly: "of Rhodes and then the Knights of Malta, began as a monastic foundation caring for sick pilgrims in Jerusalem before the First Crusade and was reorganised in the early twelfth century into a..."
This source names Malta directly: "of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, formally established 2 January 2005 to replace the Emergency Corps of the Order of Malta, which had combined the Order's national relief services since 1992."
This source names Malta directly: "of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, formed 1992 and renamed 2005."
This source names Malta directly: "by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, stating 152 projects carried out across 36 countries, reaching 7.2 million people in need, including 4.8 million people provided health support through 663..."
This source names Malta directly: "The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is the modern sovereign entity descended from the medieval Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic lay religious order that once ruled Rhodes and then Malta as..."
Contains
Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source 4. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source 5. Concordat Watch: Maltese Concordats, Overview and Texts
The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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