The Maltese people are an ethnic group native to Malta who speak Maltese, a Semitic language descended from Siculo-Arabic with a substantial Romance superstratum, and share a common Maltese history and culture characterised by Latin Catholicism, which remains the state religion. Malta, an island country in the Mediterranean Sea, is an archipelago that also includes an island of the same name together with the islands of Gozo and Comino ; people of Gozo, Gozitans are considered a subgroup of the Maltese.