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Updates: 

Addressing expert Graham Rhind  informs me that the Maltese postal code system was revamped in 2007.

Act No. XVI of 2009 was passed on 2009-09-30. It amends the Local Councils Act of 1993. One of its provisions is to add a new schedule titled "Regions". This schedule lists five regions with the local councils that belong to each. I have concluded that these replace the former three regions, effective with the Act.

According to Malta's Department of Local Councils (source [2]), Malta was divided into 68 localities under the Local Councils Act, published on 1993-06-30. The act was extensively amended on 1999-12-21. Obviously, the localities are governed by local councils. The localities were grouped into three regions.

Country overview: 

Short name	MALTA
ISO code	MT
FIPS code	MT
Language	Maltese (mt), English (en)
Time zone	+1 ~
Capital	Valletta

 

Malta was part of the British Empire until its independence on 1964-09-21.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Malta
2. Dutch: Malta, Republiek Malta (formal)
3. English: Republic of Malta (formal)
4. Finnish: Malta
5. French: Malte f
6. German: Malta n, Republik f Malta (formal)
7. Italian: Malta f
8. Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta (formal)
9. Norwegian: Malta, Republikken Malta (formal)
10. Portuguese: Malta n (f in Brazil), República f de Malta (formal)
11. Russian: Республика Мальта (formal)
12. Spanish: Malta, República f de Malta f (formal)
13. Swedish: Malta
14. Turkish: Malta Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from Phoenician for refuge

Primary subdivisions: 

Malta is divided into five regions without administrative functions.

Region	HASC	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Central	MT.CE	102,380	23	9
Gozo	MT.GO	31,007	69	27
Northern	MT.NO	85,834	113	44
South Eastern	MT.SE	89,974	77	30
Southern	MT.SO	95,767	34	13
Total		404,962	315	122
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. Population: 2005-11-27 census. Area: Derived by adding areas of component local councils.

Postal codes: 

Maltese postal codes consist of a three-letter locality code, a space, and four digits. Before 2007, Malta used a mixed system of postal codes. The numeric part was two digits for locations on the island of Malta, or three digits on Gozo (source [7]).

Further subdivisions:

See the Localities of Malta page.

The regions are subdivided into localities.

At the NUTS-3 level, Malta is divided into the island of Malta (code MT001) and Gozo and Comino (MT002). These are not administrative divisions.

Territorial extent: 

Malta consists of the islands of Malta, Gozo (Maltese: Ghawdex), Comino (Kemmuna), Cominotto, Selmunett, and Filfla, and a few tiny islets. Only the first three are inhabited. Central, Northern, South Eastern, and Southern regions correspond to the island of Malta; Gozo region corresponds to all of the other islands. Within Gozo region, Ghajnsielem local council contains part of Gozo and all of Comino (and probably the smaller islands).

The UN LOCODE page  for Malta lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Change history: 

The following table shows statistical districts used prior to 1993 (source [6]).

Region	Code	Population	Area(km.²)
Gozo and Comino	GO	26,000	70
Inner Harbour	IH	118,000	15
Northern	NO	24,000	78
Outer Harbour	OH	75,000	32
South Eastern	SE	35,000	53
Western	WE	36,000	69
Total		314,000	316
Population: 1967-11-26 census. Code: Arbitrary code, used on Localities page.

 

~1990: Inner Harbour and Outer Harbour districts regrouped to form Northern Harbour and Southern Harbour.

1993-06-30: Local Councils Act (source [2]), divided Malta into 68 localities, grouped into three regions.

Region	HASC	Population	Area(km.²)
Gozo	MT.GO	29,026	69
Malta Majjistral	MT.MM	215,222	170
Malta Xlokk	MT.MX	133,884	76
Totals		378,132	315
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. Population: 1995-11-26 census. Area: Derived by adding areas of component local councils.

 

2004-05-01: Malta joined the European Union.

2009-09-30: Act No. XVI of 2009 created Central and Northern regions from Malta Majjistral, Southern region from Malta Xlokk, and South Eastern region from parts of both Malta Majjistral and Malta Xlokk.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Malta Majjistral: North Western (variant)
2. Malta Xlokk: South Eastern (variant)

Sources: 

1. [1] Act No. XVI of 2009 (http://www.doi.gov.mt/EN/parliamentacts/2009/Local%20Councils%20(Amendment)%20Act,%202009%20MT%20&%20EN.pdf - dead link, retrieved 2009-11-10, 32 pages in Maltese followed by 32 pages in English). More recently, the list of regions formed by this act has been available at Chapter 363: Local Councils Act , p. 126 (the last page), retrieved 2012-10-09.
2. [2] Department of Local Councils website (http://www.justice.gov.mt/deptlc.asp - dead link, retrieved 2002-11-17).
3. [3] National Statistics Office (NSO) archives - publications  has a number of links. The ones headed "Demographic Review of the Maltese Islands" include population estimates for different years.
4. [4] NSO traffic accident summary  shows the relation between statistical districts and local councils.
5. [5] Census of Population and Housing, 2005: Volume 1, Population .
6. [6] Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition. Chicago, 1984.
7. [7] Postal Addressing Systems, a pdf file released by the Universal Postal Union, 1997.