The Maltese Islands are a small archipelago of some six islands and islets in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Sicily. Their population is about 400,000.

The largest island of the group is Malta, from which the archipelago takes its name. With its capital, Valletta, it has a population of just over 370,000. It is the cultural, administrative, industrial and commercial centre of the whole archipelago, well served with harbours, chief of which is the Grand Harbour, and an International airport at Gudja.

The other inhabited island is Gozo, population 29,000, quite different from Malta in many ways and quaintly attractive for its less industrialised way of life. Comino, Cominotto, Filfla and St Paul's Island are the other major features of the archipelago. Of these, only Comino, straddled between Malta and Gozo, sustains a very tiny population.

The distance between Malta and the nearest point in Sicily is 93 km. The distance from the nearest point on the North African mainland is 288 km. Gibraltar is 1,826 km to the west, and Alexandria is 1,510 km to the east.

The total area is 246 km sq. The longest distance in Malta, from the south-east to the north-west, is about 27 km, and the widest distances are 14 km and 7 km.

The combined area of the three inhabited islands approximates that of the Isle of Wight. Malta is slightly larger than the combined area of the Channel Islands whilst the size of Gozo is nearly equal to that of Bermuda or the Isle of Hong Kong.

Malta has no mountains or rivers. A series of low hills with terraced fields on the slopes characterize the island.

The coastline of Malta is well indented thus providing numerous harbours, bays, creeks, sandy beaches and rocky coves. The length of the shoreline round Malta is 136 km, and 43 km round Gozo.

It is the climate, more than anything else, that has made Malta an important tourist resort at the centre of the Mediterranean. Not only does it never snow in Malta, but one can be quite certain about the weather in summer as well as in winter. The total annual rainfall is about 50 cm (20 ins); the average winter temperature is 12 degrees C. (c. 54 deg. F.). There are only two seasons in Malta: the dry season, and the mild winter season. Winter lasts only from November to March. Rain rarely, if ever, falls during the summer months.

The minimum wage in Malta is €125 p/wk, and the average wage €182 p/wk. One Maltese lira (LM) is equivalent to +/- €2.3 (€1=43 Maltese cents). Malta will be joining the Eurozone on January 1, 2008.