More than 80,000 people in Malta cannot afford to face an unexpected financial expense and more than double that number are unable to pay for a one-week holiday away from home, a national annual survey of material deprivation has found. The 2020 survey found that the rates of both material deprivation rose by 0.3 percentage points over the past year, with 8.7 per cent of Malta’s population - 43,733 people - classified that way. On the other hand, the rate of severe material deprivation fell by 0.3 percentage points to 16,636 people. National Statistics Office surveyors estimated the total number of people living in private households in 2019 to be 484,683, rising to 505,014 in 2020.