World War II and population change in the Maltese context

Abstract

Warfare is associated with marked social consequences that directly and indirectly will influence the reproductive patterns of the population. The present analysis looks that the population changes that occurred during the Second World War (1939-1945) where the Maltese population was directly involved. The study confirms that one of the consequences of warfare in the Maltese context was a reduction in birth rates that picked up again in the post-war period. The conflict further set a course of attitudes that was to lead to better organisation and betterment of obstetric statistics in the subsequent decades.