Brutal population decline: Hungarians are dropping like flies
Although population decline has eased slightly, the trend has not yet been reversed in Hungary as the population of the country fell by another 42 thousand in a year. Meanwhile, the number of Hungarians who have disappeared from Serbia has also been revealed.
According to preliminary data, 7004 children were born and 11 606 people died in March 2023. The number of births was the same as in March 2022, while deaths fell by 7.3 percent and marriages by 32 percent, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) told MTI on Friday.
It said 7004 children were born in March, the same number as a year earlier. 11,606 people died, 7.3 percent fewer than in March last year, or 920 fewer. The natural death rate was 4,602 compared to 5,522 in March 2022.
Between April 2022 and March 2023, 89,799 children were born, 0.7 percent or 611 fewer than in the previous 12 months. In January-March this year, the number of births increased by 7.1 percent compared to the same months in 2022. The total fertility rate was estimated at 1.55, the same as in the previous 12 months.
According to the KSH, 131,883 deaths occurred, 12 percent or 18,272 fewer than in the previous 12 months. In the first quarter of this year, the number of deaths fell by 10 percent compared to the same period in 2022.
Births fell by less than deaths, resulting in a natural decrease of 42,084, 30 percent lower than the 59,745 deaths in the previous 12 months. Despite the positive trend, the natural decrease is still huge in Hungary.
Hungarian population decline in Serbia has been revealed
As we have previously written, Serbia faces an even larger population loss than Hungary, but at the time of the Hungarian census, there weren’t any fresh Serbian data available to make an estimate about the decrease of the Hungarian minority.
Now, the Serbian National Institute of Statistics published the results of the Serbian census, Szabad Magyar Szó reports. Out of a population of 6,647,003, 184,442 identified themselves as Hungarians.
This means that the Hungarian minority remained the largest in Serbia ahead of the Bosnian and Romani minorities. At the time of the 2011 census, the number of Hungarians was 253,899. This means that now 69,457 fewer Hungarian live in Serbia than 11 years ago. This represents a 28 percent decrease.
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