Culture

The collection of interactive figures provides up-to-date information on the latest domestic and international socio-economic trends. The decisive part of the figures included in HCSO Monitor are downloadable in both image and data formats (PNG, SVG and CSV). Feel free to browse the data in HCSO Monitor, updated many times a week!

A stage performance is not only entertainment but also the guardian and mediator of the cultural values and identity of a community, region or nation. In Hungary, the overall attendance at the 240 national theatres rose to 6.9 million in 2023 (by 10%). Similar to the previous year, 1.6 million people attended the performances of the 11 nationally accredited theatre arts organisations, with the National Circus Arts Centre, the Hungarian State Opera House and the Budapest Operetta Theatre attracting the highest attendance (together almost 900,000 visitors).

15 March is not only the holiday of the 1848 Revolution but has also been Hungarian Press Day since 1990. The first free Hungarian printed matter was printed then in 1848. In Hungary, the number of copies of printed daily papers peaked before the change of regime, approximating 1 billion in annual totals. Due to digitalisation and to changes in the customs of obtaining information, the total number of copies of printed daily papers was only 150 million in 2023, and the place of formerly leading broadsheet newspapers was taken by tabloids.

The first movie screening took place about 130 years ago in Hungary, and it may be said that movie going is still very popular in the country. According to the latest, 2023 data, there were 152 movie theatres in Hungary, 128 indoor and 24 outdoor cinemas. The number of outdoor movies grew since 2019 by seven. The so-called multiplexes offered a total of 29 thousand seats, 41% of the total capacity.

We have been celebrating the Day of Hungarian Culture on 22 January since 1989 to commemorate that - according to the manuscript - Ferenc Kölcsey completed his poem Hymnus, a’ Magyar nép zivataros századaiból (The Hymn from the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people), the national anthem of Hungary, on this day in 1823. The commemorations related to the anniversary, both domestically and abroad, provide an opportunity to pay attention to our millennial traditions and to strengthen our national consciousness. In 2023, the number of communities operating in public cultural institutions and venues, which nurture our spiritual and material values, reached nearly 200 thousand.

The Carnival season starts on 6 January every year and lasts until the day before Ash Wednesday, the 40th day preceding Easter. This period is all about merriment, balls, cheerful feasts. The Busójárás of Mohács is one of the best known among the numerous traditions in Hungary, where winter is ousted by the parade of specific masks and fur wearing people (Busós) and by lighting bonfires. The 2025 Busójárás is going to take place between 27 February and 4 March.

About 16 thousand works (books and brochures) have been published in 2023, the number of issues came close to 37 million. Every third volume was written by a foreign author. In case of cinemas, the number of those with one auditorium decreased, the larger ones and open-air cinema numbers grew in five years. The number of seats tend to concentrate in the 8 or more auditorium multiplexes; these represented 34% in 2019 and by 2023 gave 41% of the total capacity of cinemas in Hungary.

The yearbook provides an overview of Hungary's demographic, social and economic processes, environmental characteristics and their changes over time, with the help of tens of thousands of data of 500 tables, graphs and maps. Innovatively, the Tourism, catering chapter in the volume includes the gross receipts of tourist accommodation establishments by type of accommodation. Another change is that this year the Regional data chapter already presents territorial data by tourism area, giving greater emphasis to tourist destinations.

Datasets from the Dissemination Database regarding settlements and Budapest’s districts have been updated with 2022 data, as such settlement and district related data for 2022 are available since 31 August, concerning, among others, data on cinemas.