Press release, 07.08.2026.

Numbers behind colours, stories behind numbers – HCSO’s interactive maps reveal everything

Is Iklanberény the winner of population growth? Are there 30 cars for every household in Csomád? The Hungarian Central Statistical Office also reveals what lies behind the surprising numbers. The HCSO’s platform known as TIMEA has been updated with data for a total of 53 indicators.

In the past decade in Hungary, around 500–600 thousand people relocated to another settlement within the country each year. The internal migration presents a diverse picture. In general, the dominant pattern of the most populous settlements is that the number of people moving out exceeds that of those moving in. Exceptions to this included Budapest and some towns with county rights, such as Érd, Esztergom and Zalaegerszeg. Among county seats, the internal migration loss per thousand inhabitants in 2025 exceeded 7 people in Eger, Kaposvár, Miskolc, Salgótarján and Szeged. At first glance, small villages may appear to be the biggest winners of the migration. However, this is mainly due to the specific nature of the indicator calculated per thousand inhabitants because in settlements with a small population, even a small number of people moving in can have a significant impact on their value. For example, if a family with two children moved to Iborfia (Zala County), with a population of 13 inhabitants according to the most recently published data, it would represent a 30 percent growth on its own.

Thus, in 2025, the highest migration gain per thousand inhabitants was recorded in Iklanberény and Hegyhátszentmárton, Vas County, as well as Felsőszenterzsébet, Zala County (147, 142 and 133 per thousand inhabitants, respectively). Among towns, Gyönk, Tolna County (55), Bélapátfalva, Heves County (30), and Nyírbogát, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County (27) ranked at the top of the list.

A similar interesting pattern can be observed in the settlement ranking of the number of passenger cars per thousand population. At the top of the most recent list were Csomád and Tésa (Pest County), Kutasó (Nógrád County), and Felcsút (Fejér County). This does not mean, however, that there are 30–40 cars for every household in these settlements. In the case of the ‘leading’ ones, this is more likely due to the fact that vehicle fleet-related businesses domiciled in the affected settlements own a number of registered cars that exceeds the number of inhabitants. This demonstrates that interpreting individual settlement indicators always requires knowledge of local characteristics as well.

Child-bearing, the number of births is also a complex phenomenon. The total fertility rate (TFR) used in statistics reflects the average number of children a woman is expected to give birth to during her life, based on current patterns of child-bearing. For the long-term survival of the population, this value should be roughly 2.1 – but which counties are closest to this level? Based on the most recently updated data, the value of TFR was the highest in the north-east of the country, in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County (1.66) and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County (1.63) in 2025. Compared to the data of 2015, the greatest decline was observed in the capital city (by 0.21) and Komárom-Esztergom County (by 0.19).

Together with the outlined examples here, the HCSO’s Interactive Mapping Application (TIMEA) has been updated today with data for a total of 53 indicators. The update affects indicators related to demographics, health care, social care protection, business units, earnings, justice and job vacancies.

Thanks to the free and interactive platform of TIMEA, also available in Hungarian and English, anyone can create illustrative maps from the indicators presented on HCSO’s website, which can also be downloaded along with their associated data. Map representations are basically possible on four – region, county, district and settlement – territorial levels. Labels and base map layers – for example aerial photo or OpenStreetMap (OSM) – may be assigned to maps containing settlement boundaries. The overwhelming majority of representable and downloadable data is available starting from 2012, these indices appear according to the public administration structure of the latest available year in a uniform manner.

Hungarian Central Statistical Office
H-1024 Budapest, Keleti Károly utca 5–7. Phone number: (+36-1) 345-6000
Postal address: H-1525 Budapest, P.O.Box 51
www.ksh.hu