ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Malta. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Malta. Citizens of Malta can change their government democratically. Members of the House of Representatives, the country's unicameral legislature, are elected on the basis of proportional representation every five years. Malta's two main political parties own television and radio stations, as well as newspapers, which promote their political views. Italian television and radio are also popular. Malta has one of the lowest rates of Internet usage in Europe, with only an estimated four percent of the population having access to the Internet.
