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Best places to live in Malta with every factor weighted equally
The ranking at the top of this page starts with all 12 factors at the same weight. On that footing, these 10 of the 29 places score highest; the number beside each is its match score out of 100. Treat the list as a starting point, not a verdict: raise the factors you care about and the order changes. Select a place to open its full breakdown.
- 176Strongest on cultural scene (98), restaurants and bars (96) and international community (94). Weakest on bike friendliness (8). Cultural scene: the average resident has 44.8 museums, theatres, cinemas and galleries within 3 km.
- 275Strongest on airport access (100), public transit (100) and cultural scene (93). Weakest on bike friendliness (27). Airport access: 98% of residents live within 600 m of a stop on a bus route to the airport (mapped routes, not timetables).
- 372Strongest on restaurants and bars (100), walkability (100) and airport access (96). Weakest on housing cost (0). Restaurants and bars: the average resident has 165 restaurants, cafes and bars within 1 km.
- 471Strongest on cultural scene (100), walkability (100) and restaurants and bars (91). Weakest on airport access (24). Cultural scene: the average resident has 51.2 museums, theatres, cinemas and galleries within 3 km.
- 570Strongest on international community (100), public transit (100) and restaurants and bars (98). Weakest on housing cost (0). International community: 54.7% of residents were born outside Malta (2021 census grid; Maltese average 25.7%).
- 664Strongest on access to nature (100), restaurants and bars (80) and safety (76). Weakest on cultural scene (42). Access to nature: 29.2% of the land within 1 km of homes is park, forest or open nature. Whole locality: 51%.
- 762Strongest on public transit (97), airport access (93) and healthcare (86). Weakest on bike friendliness (4). Public transit: 97% of residents live within 400 m of a stop served by five or more bus routes (mapped routes, not timetables).
- 861Strongest on airport access (100), public transit (100) and walkability (100). Weakest on bike friendliness (4). Airport access: 100% of residents live within 600 m of a stop on a bus route to the airport (mapped routes, not timetables).
- 961Strongest on public transit (100), cultural scene (95) and safety (76). Weakest on access to nature (12). Public transit: 100% of residents live within 400 m of a stop served by five or more bus routes (mapped routes, not timetables).
- 1058Strongest on healthcare (82), public transit (79) and cultural scene (78). Weakest on bike friendliness (11). Healthcare: homes average 0.9 km from the nearest general hospital, in a straight line.
Best places in Malta by priority
Each starting point is a preset in the tool above. It raises the factors named and lowers a few others. The five highest-scoring places under each:
Family raises safety, access to nature and international schools to 5, and healthcare and walkability to 4.
- Gżira, Malta: 73
- Pembroke, Malta: 71
- St. Julian's, Malta: 71
- Ta' Xbiex, Malta: 71
- Msida, Malta: 70
Budget first raises housing cost to 5, and safety, healthcare, public transit and walkability to 4.
- Msida, Malta: 77
- Victoria (Gozo): 75
- Balzan, Malta: 74
- Birkirkara, Malta: 73
- Gżira, Malta: 73
Car-free raises public transit and walkability to 5, and bike friendliness to 4.
- Gżira, Malta: 81
- Msida, Malta: 81
- St. Julian's, Malta: 79
- Ta' Xbiex, Malta: 75
- Sliema, Malta: 74
Frequent flyer raises airport access to 5, and international community, public transit, restaurants and bars and cultural scene to 4.
- Gżira, Malta: 91
- Msida, Malta: 91
- Sliema, Malta: 91
- St. Julian's, Malta: 87
- Ħamrun, Malta: 74
Questions about where to live in Malta
What is the best place to live in Malta?
It depends on what you need from a place, which is why the Malta City Finder re-ranks as you set your priorities. With all 12 factors weighted equally, Gżira, Msida and St. Julian's score highest of the 29 places compared. Change the starting point and the answer changes: Family puts Gżira first, Budget first puts Msida first, Car-free puts Gżira and Msida level at the top and Frequent flyer puts Gżira, Msida and Sliema level at the top.
What are the best places to live in Malta for families?
The Family starting point raises safety, access to nature and international schools to 5, and healthcare and walkability to 4. With it, Gżira, Pembroke, St. Julian's, Ta' Xbiex and Msida score highest.
Which places in Malta are easiest to live in without a car?
The Car-free starting point raises public transit and walkability to 5, and bike friendliness to 4. With it, Gżira, Msida, St. Julian's, Ta' Xbiex and Sliema score highest.
Where is housing most affordable in Malta?
On the housing cost factor, the highest scores go to Birżebbuġa, Victoria (Gozo), St. Paul's Bay, Marsaskala and Żabbar. Birżebbuġa: €700 a month, median rent of a two-bedroom apartment, leases starting in the first half of 2024 (read from the Housing Authority's chart).
Which places in Malta score highest for safety?
On the safety factor, the highest scores go to Victoria (Gozo), St. Paul's Bay, Birkirkara, Mosta and Sliema. Victoria (Gozo): 312.8 violent crimes and 63.5 burglaries of homes per 100,000 residents in 2024 (Maltese average 313.1 and 72.6). Figure for Gozo and Comino: none is published for the locality alone. The safety score is built from official crime figures. A low score means more recorded crime than other places on this list, not that a place is unsafe; How the scores work explains the measure.
Where does the data come from?
The Malta City Finder compares 29 places on 12 factors using official statistics and open data. The figure behind every score is shown beside it, and each source is listed under How the scores work and at the foot of this page. The methodology sets out how every city finder turns figures into scores.
Does the City Finder tell me whether I can move to Malta?
No. It is an informational research tool that compares places using general statistics. It does not assess eligibility for any visa, residence permit or citizenship, and nothing in it is legal, immigration, tax or financial advice. For visa and residence routes, see Move Me To EU.
About the Malta City Finder
The Malta City Finder compares 29 places across Malta on 12 factors: housing cost, safety, bike friendliness, access to nature, international community, healthcare, airport access, public transit, restaurants and bars, cultural scene, walkability and international schools. Every factor starts at the same weight. Raise the ones you care about, lower or switch off the ones you don't, and the ranking and map re-sort as you go. You can shortlist places, compare them side by side, and copy a link that reopens your exact setup.
It is built for Americans weighing a move to Malta, whether through citizenship by descent, a visa or another route, who want to turn a long list of places into a shortlist worth visiting. St. Paul's Bay, Birkirkara and Mosta are on the list, and so are smaller places that rarely make the usual rankings. Scores are built from official statistics and open data, the figure behind each score is shown next to it, and the sources are listed at the foot of this page. The methodology explains how a figure becomes a score.
For visa and residence routes, see Move Me To EU, Karte Global's visa and relocation practice. Considering more than one country? Browse every city finder, or compare places across the whole EU on one scale in the EU City Finder.
How the scores work
Each figure is turned into a 0 to 100 score. Most factors are scored half by comparison and half on a fixed scale. The comparison half ranks the places against each other: the weakest twentieth score 0 and the strongest twentieth score 100. The fixed half measures each place from zero up to the level of the strongest, so a place is not marked zero merely for coming last on a list of good options. Housing cost has no natural zero and is scored by comparison only. Public transit, healthcare and cycling are scored on a fixed scale (see the table). Safety has its own scale, described below.
Places are the local council localities with 10,000 or more residents, plus Valletta, Victoria (Gozo), Balzan, Lija, Pembroke and Ta' Xbiex. Malta's main island is one continuous built-up area, so the measures near home (restaurants, culture, nature, walking, buses) count what lies around where residents live, across locality lines. A score is a comparison, not a grade, and the figure behind every score is shown next to it.
Your overall match is not a flat average. Weights are squared, so a factor at 5 counts nearly three times as much as one at 3. The result is stretched so that strong matches separate from middling ones. A place that excels on something you rated 4 or 5 earns a small bonus, shown as "strong fit"; one that does badly on it takes a penalty, shown as "weak fit". Where a place has no figure for a factor, that factor is left out of its match and the others carry the weight.
Badges: Measured a published official statistic or survey result. Derived calculated by us from published data. Editorial written or judged by us: only short notes, which never affect a score. Planned not in the score yet.
Reading the safety score. Violent crime counts twice as much as burglary of homes. Figures are published only for two areas, the island of Malta and Gozo with Comino, and their violent crime rates are almost identical, so the score is on a fixed scale only: no recorded violent crime or burglary would score 100, and the Maltese average scores 76. Across Malta the police recorded 313.1 violent crimes and 72.6 burglaries of homes per 100,000 residents in 2024. Crime is counted where it happens, so areas that draw visitors and nightlife record more per resident than quieter ones, but no figure is published below the two islands.
Reading the bus figures. Malta Public Transport publishes no open timetable. Public transit and airport access therefore count the bus routes as they are mapped in OpenStreetMap: how many routes serve a stop, and whether a route runs to the airport. They do not measure how often buses run or how long trips take. Malta has no railway, so long-distance trains are not scored.