Culture

It is exceptionally important to us to provide more up-to-date information on the social and economic developments in our country, in addition to our regular and detailed publications.
Our WEEKLY MONITOR provides insights into trends in key areas through weekly, monthly and quarterly data from our interactive chart collection.
Most WEEKLY MONITOR charts can also be downloaded in image and data formats (PNG, SVG and CSV).

Since 2015, the number of registered library users has been decreasing. As a result of the Covid19 pandemic, this tendency became stronger in 2020 and continued more moderately in 2021. The number of persons using the national and country-wide research libraries fell by 42% in 2021, compared to 2019. As a result of the temporary closure of institutions, according to preliminary data, on-the-spot usage decreased by 44% by 2021 in municipal libraries, while remote usage increased by 15%, and the library stock was slightly expanded in libraries.

The upward trend in the number of cinemas was interrupted by the Covid19 pandemic, whose effect could be observed in 2021, too: compared to the previous year, 11% fewer cinemas were open to the public. Although there were 8.8% more performances and 43% more visitors than a year earlier, still a 43% decline could be observed with respect to the performances compared to 2019. Visits were below by 59%, which can be explained by the epidemiological restrictions and the temporary closure of institutions until May.

From 2013 the number of concert visitors had continuously been increasing, which was interrupted by the Covid19-related restrictions and temporary closures of institutions in 2020. By 2021, according to preliminary data, the number of visits fell by 19% compared to the previous year. However, the average number of visits per one performance increased by 34%, as the number of performances decreased to a larger extent (by 39%) than that of the visitors. 4,160 classical concerts were organised in 2021.

In 2021 a total of 17,150 books and booklets were published, 17% more than in the previous year; at the same time, the number of copies of the published books increased by 39%. The average number of copies per one book (2,269) nearly reached the number in 2019 (2,280). Most books were released in literature (4,768) and special literature (4,135). Publishers and readers are still fond of juvenile and children’s literature; 2,888 books were published, and the number of copies increased by more than 70% compared to the previous year.

2021 was the recovery year from the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy restarted, its performance –following the 2020 setback – surpassed the previous year’s by 7.1%. The pocketbook, published every spring, offers through its tables an insight into the 2021 developments of Hungary’s social, economic processes.

The yearbook presents how demographic, socio-economic trends and environmental characteristics changed over time in Hungary. The main indicators are illustrated in time series or regional comparisons by charts and maps; the interactive versions of these are available on our website. Spatial disparities among counties and regions as well as international indicators are presented in separate chapters. The internet annex contains the publication in PDF format and all tables in Excel format.