Science and technology

Humanity wishes for a long time to reach the stars and space exploration gains nowadays an ever-increasing role in research and development. Hungary spent 19.4 billion HUF between 2021-2023 for this purpose, 16% more than in the 2010-2020 period. Bertalan Farkas was, 45 years ago, on 26 May 1980, the first Hungarian astronaut in the cosmos, the Hungarian nation becoming as such the seventh to reach the space. Tibor Kapu, the next Hungarian, starts his space mission on 8 June 2025.

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.

According to preliminary data, the amount of R&D expenditure exceeded HUF 1,000 billion in Hungary in 2023, increasing by 12% at current prices compared to a year earlier. R&D expenditure as a proportion of GDP (1.38%) was unchanged in effect. 30% of enterprises in Hungary performed innovation activities between 2020 and 2022. 22% of the observed enterprises introduced business process innovation and some 19% product innovation, so 27% of the enterprises can be considered as innovative enterprises.

Ernő Rubik, the creator of the Rubik's cube, will turn 80 on 13 July 2024. The story of the game began in 1974, when the architect and university professor built a magic cube out of wood and rubber to develop spatial thinking in students. At first he didn't believe in its success, finding it too difficult to put together, but by the 1980s the cube had become world famous. Its popularity has continued ever since, winning the Toy of the Year award many times around the world. More than 400 million copies of one of the most successful games of all time have been sold.

In 2017, HUF 517 billion, 1.35% of GDP was spent on research and development activities at the level of the national economy. Nearly 74% of research and development expenditure came from the activities of business enterprises at the level of the national economy, R&D units in higher education as well as R&D institutes and other budgetary research units accounted for 13% each. The significant part of tender resources of 2016 were used in 2017, as a result of which R&D expenditure financed from the government budget rose to the highest extent, by nearly HUF 53 billion (by 47%) at current prices. R&D expenditure financed by the sources of business enterprises rose by HUF 31 billion (by 13%). Out of the financial sources of R&D expenditure only the amount of funds from non-profit organisations that decreased, by 10.5% over a year.