Population and vital events

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).

According to preliminary data, 7,398 children were born and 11,342 people died in January 2023. In the last twelve months, i.e. between February 2022 and January 2023, the number of births diminished by 3.4%, that of deaths by 14% and the number of marriages by 12% compared to the period one year earlier.

In 2021, more children were born than a year earlier, while the number of deaths rose to a far greater extent owing to the Covid-19 pandemic; therefore, the pace of natural decrease increased. Fertility rate reached its highest value since 1994, and the highest number of marriages was recorded in 2021 after 1986. The Demographic Yearbook contains detailed data about the composition of population, the changes in births, marriages, divorces and deaths as well as the features of migration.

The Covid19-pandemic still cast a shadow over the vital events in 2021, which was reflected in a high number of deaths, totalling 155 thousand persons. The willingness to have children kept increasing; more children were born than a year earlier. Infant mortality fell to the lowest level so far. Taking into consideration the 20.6 thousand surplus of the international inward and outward migration, Hungary’s population decreased by 41.4 thousand persons. The number of marriages kept increasing.

The approximately 500 tables, graphs and maps and tens of thousands of data the Statistical Yearbook of Hungary contains give, for almost one and a half century, an overview of the social and economic processes of the country in the given year. Besides paying attention to the ever changing socio-economic environment and user demands we always strive to share new information: the health chapter broadened this year with indices regarding outpatient care, time series of healthcare expenses, life expectancy in good health and the number of Covid19 infected people.

Datasets from the Dissemination Database regarding settlements and Budapest’s districts have been updated with 2021 data, as such settlement and district related data for 2021 are available since 31 August, concerning, among others, resident population, live births, deaths, marriages, internal migration.

The United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division updated its latest population projection for all countries of the world on 11th July 2022. The United Nations demographers prepared their world population projection by 2100 in more variants (high, medium and low, permanent fertility, etc.). Our interactive chart contains – in addition to the data of the period between 1950 and 2020 – the figures of the medium variant considered the most probable.

Our publication, also highlighting the main effects of the pandemic, gives an overview of the social and economic trends in Hungary in 2020, including a 5% drop in GDP, putting us in the middle of the EU ranking, taking into use 28,000 new homes, the highest number since 2009, a nearly threefold increase in the share of people working remotely or from home as compared to the average for the past 10 years, a 42% increase in the value of mail order and internet retailing, and fewer accidents on the roads.

141 thousand people died in Hungary in 2020, a more than 11 thousand larger number of persons than a year earlier. The most – nearly 66 thousand – people died owing to diseases of the circulatory system according to the underlying cause of death, which was a rise on earlier years. The number of people having died of tumorous diseases (32.5 thousand people), considered as the second most frequent cause of death, hardly changed compared to one year earlier (–0.6%). 8,981 people lost their lives due to Covid-19, also emerging in Hungary in March 2020.