Malta is a unitary parliamentary republic made up of an island archipelago divided into local councils. It is a neutral EU member with Catholicism as the state religion, combining an open services economy with socially mixed policy.
In the 12 Axes register, Malta leans hardest on Irreligious – Religious: Religious 83%; the register median is Religious 68%.
Take the test and this line shows how close your twelve scores are to Malta, and the axis where you differ most.
Where Malta sits on each of the twelve axes, in four categories. The label is our estimate; the line under it says why.
Unitary
Unitary state with local councils
Representative Democracy
Single-chamber parliament, proportional voting
Liberal
Divorce legal since 2011, press largely free
Cooperation
EU member since 2004
Non-Aggressive
Neutrality written into the constitution
Centrist
Open to EU migration, restrictive asylum policy
Mixed Economic
Mixed economy with public utilities
Markets
Services economy, EU regulation
Globalist
EU single market and euro member
Religious
Catholicism is the state religion
Conservative
Same-sex marriage since 2017, abortion tightly limited
Neutral
Active digital and gaming regulation
Set against the median of all 195 countries in the register.
Democratic – Autocratic
On Democratic – Autocratic, Malta is at Democratic 68%. The register median is balanced 50%.
Federal – Unitary
On Federal – Unitary, Malta is at Unitary 68%, almost the register median of Unitary 68%.
Closeness is 100 minus the root-mean-square distance on all twelve axes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · freedomhouse.org
Map: NuclearVacuum, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized.
Last updated: 2026-10-15
The tiers on this page are our estimates from public positions and policies. They are not an official statement by the person or the government concerned. Two independent passes scored every axis and a third settled the differences. How the register works. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].
