Regional data

King Leopold I gave Debrecen free royal town status in a patent dated 11 April 1693, in commemoration of this event the city is celebrating since 1998 its day on 11 April. Debrecen was the capital of the country twice, since the mid-1980s it is the second most populous city of Hungary (preceding Miskolc). It is a significant economic and educational-cultural centre. The city is the first in the rank of county seats considering the number of registered enterprises, and the University of Debrecen hosts, among the tertiary educational institutions of Hungary, the most foreign students.

The latest issue of the scientific journal features studies on the following topics: the small and medium-sized enterprise clusters’ and industrial estates’ spatial spillover effects; the higher education’s role in shaping female entrepreneurship; regional residential battery storage diffusion pathways in Hungary; geographically and temporally weighted multivariate generalised gamma regression for modelling; the role of fiscal decentralisation in poverty reduction; the impact of geographical diversification on portfolio performance; poverty traps in Indonesia; economic strategies for managing internal migration in Kazakhstan.

The Sectoral Overview chapter of the publication ‘TÉR-KÉP, 2023 (Map-Snap)’, shows the spatial differences in Hungary through the state of some sections of the economy (agriculture, industry, construction, catering and trade). In 2023, housing construction is still concentrated in some districts of and the agglomeration of the capital, the shores of Lake Balaton, the north-western part of the country and some large cities in the Great Hungarian Plain. In the districts of Siófok and Mosonmagyaróvár, as well as in the districts XIII, IX and XI of Budapest, the number of housing constructions per 10 000 inhabitants was exceptionally high, more than three times higher than the national average (19). The complete publication is available in Hungarian at: TÉR-KÉP, 2023.

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).

The Economy chapter of the TÉR-KÉP (Map-Snap), 2023 publication presents the factors at the base of growth, from macroeconomic trends, spatial differences in GDP per capita perspectives, the spatiality of investments and R&D, the level of digitalisation, the use of infocommunication devices at enterprises. The number of active enterprises (929 thousand in total) per thousand people is characteristically higher in the mid- and western parts of the country, and lower than the national average (97) in the eastern and northern parts – especially around the country border area and the mid-Tisza districts. The complete publication is available in Hungarian at: TÉR-KÉP, 2023.

Hungarian enterprises are characterised by strong concentration, the 5 enterprises with the highest turnover generated more than ten percent (10,1%) of total turnover in 2023. The ten largest weight representing divisions, all of these representing industrial, construction or trade activities, realised 58% of total sales revenue. The share of foreign-controlled enterprises in the turnover of the leading economic divisions was 52%, with German and Austrian companies’ dominance and an increasing Asian presence.

The Regional differences in Society chapter of the TÉR-KÉP (Map-Snap), 2023 publication offers information, beside demographic and labour market processes, about Hungary’s healthcare and social services systems, too. Regional disparities in the country’s public- and tertiary education are made known. The former is mainly following the regional distribution of the population, while the latter is strongly concentrated in larger cities. During the 2023/2024 academic year 56% of full-time students participating in tertiary undergraduate and postgraduate training studied in Budapest, 42% in towns of county rank. The complete publication is available in Hungarian: TÉR-KÉP, 2023.

The star rating system, published by the Michelin Guide in 1936, is one of the most prestigious gastronomic awards in the world. In 2024, France and Tokyo had the highest number of Michelin-starred restaurants among countries and cities respectively. The first Hungarian restaurant to receive a Michelin star was in 2010, and the list has been expanded to include restaurants in Budapest and in rural areas. In addition, some domestic restaurants have been awarded Green Star status in recent years.

The zone-based characteristics of commuting is the featured topic of the TÉR-KÉP (Map-Snap), 2023 publication. Men are traditionally more inclined toward commuting, 47% of them worked in a different settlement than their residence, according to the most recent census, while in case of women the ratio was 36%. Considering settlement hierarchy, upward commuting is more frequent. About 730 thousand people were commuting from municipalities toward towns, in the opposite direction a much lower number, 160 thousand people. The complete publication is available in Hungarian: TÉR-KÉP, 2023.

The TÉR-KÉP (Map-Snap), 2023 publication focuses on the Tokaj wine district, as a special region. The 27-settlement cultural countryside is the 4th largest among the 22 wine districts of Hungary, representing 7% of the country’s vineyards. The wine district had 43 wine-shops per ten thousand inhabitants at the end of 2023, this number was only 2 on national level. The fact that the number of accommodation establishments (78 establishments/ten thousand inhabitants) in proportion of the population was significantly higher than the national average (47) highlights the touristic appeal of the region. The complete publication is available in Hungarian: TÉR-KÉP, 2023.

Significant events in village life were pig slaughter and pig slaughter feasts, which started traditionally on 30 November, Andrew’s Day. Not only the immediate family took part in the all-day work, but it was also a custom to invite neighbours, relatives and friends. The circumstances of pig keeping and pig slaughtering substantially changed in the last decades. The number of small farms fell, and that of domestic slaughtering shows a decreasing trend. In 2023, three-quarters of Hungary’s pig population of 2.5 million belonged to pig keepers each having a population exceeding 5,000 pigs.

The publication sums up main demographic, social and economic indices of counties and regions, and presents certain data of EU regions as well. Territorial comparison is in the focus of the yearbook, presenting them through tables and maps. Revenues of accommodation establishments is a new feature of the Tourism, hospitality chapter. Our publication comes with an online annex, displaying tables, graphs and maps.

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.

With the Census Maps application you can create thematic maps for different territorial levels of Hungary (region, county, district, municipality). A number of setting and filtering options are available for displaying demographic, education, economic activity, ethnicity, religion, housing and other data from the 2022 and 2011 Censuses, and for selecting the territorial units. The maps and data produced can be downloaded and interpreted using methodological information.