Malta is among 13 EU countries were income inequality has increased with the result that the size of the so-called middle class has shrunk. This trend emerged from a Eurofound Report which periodically tracks living and working conditions across the bloc. The worst off seems to be minimum wage earners in single-person households as they are the most who are struggling to make ends meet.

Eurofound defines the middle-class as being the cohort of households earning between 75% and 2005 of the national median income. Though there is no precise official figure, Malta’s median income in 2024, was estimated to be €20,430. This figure is based on the 60%  at-risk-of-poverty threshold (ARPT) which was €12,258. Hence households earning between €15,320 and €40,860 fall within the middle-class cohort.

The report notes that the middle class shrank in almost two-thirds of Member States, albeit to varying degrees. The contraction was more significant in a mix of pre-2004 Member States (especially Sweden and Luxembourg, and also the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Denmark) and post-2004 Member States (especially Bulgaria and Malta, and also Lithuania, Czechia, Hungary and Estonia). Conversely, the middle class expanded in 10 countries, and to a very significant extent in some of the central and eastern European countries, such as Romania, Poland and Croatia, as well as Portugal and Ireland.

The cost-of-living crisis clearly has had an impact. Other factors that have widened income inequality – and the squeeze on the middle class – are the weakening of income redistribution at the family level, largely due to a decline in average household size, and the widening of wage disparities in labour markets, which has occurred in about half of the countries.

Looking at the bigger picture it seems that following the recovery registered in 2023, last year the was a partial regression. In Eurofound’s 2024 Living and Working in the EU e-survey, 30% of respondents struggled to make ends meet, up from 22% in 2023. Additionally, 10% of respondents had missed rent or mortgage payments, while 15% reported arrears in utility bills – both figures reflecting increases from the previous year.

The most common unaffordable expenses included new furniture, leisure activities, holidays, having a small amount of money to spend on oneself each week and getting together with family or friends at least once a month. Among these, the largest increases in unaffordability were seen in leisure activities and holidays, particularly among middle-aged groups (35–49 and 50–64), who already had the highest proportion of people unable to afford these activities