Population & People of Hungary

Neither a Slavic nor a Germanic people, the Ugric Hungarians were the last major ethnic group to arrive in Europe during the period of the Great Migrations. Some 10.1 million Hungarians live within the national borders, with another five million abroad. The estimated two million ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania constitute the second-largest national minority in Europe (after the Albanians of Yugoslavia), and large numbers of Hungarians live in Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Ukraine, Austria, the USA and Canada. Minorities within Hungary include Germans, Slovaks, Slovenians, Croatians, Serbs and Romanians.

Almost two-thirds of all Hungarians live in cities, just over two million of them in Budapest. The next largest cities are Debrecen (220,000), Miskolc (211,000), Szeged (185,000), Pecs (179,000) and Gyor (130,000). Hungary has Europe’s highest rate of suicide (39 per 100,000 people), well ahead of Russia, which ranks second with 26 per 100,000. The literacy rate is about 98%. Education is compulsory for children until age 16.

Population of Hungary: 10,195,513 (2001)

Ethnic composition: 97,7% Hungarian, 1,4% Roma(Gypsy), 0,3% German, 0,1% Slovak, 0,1% Croat, 0,1% Ramanian, others 0,3% (1997). Most Roma go unnoticed by statistics – their actual number is probably 5% or more.

Budapest: 1,775,203 (2001)

If you have any more questions please email Bostjan Bercic