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Hungarian emigration hits record highs: Tens of thousands leave the country annually
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Hungary is facing a historic wave of emigration, with over 40,000 Hungarian citizens leaving the country annually, according to industry experts. The trend shows no sign of slowing, with estimates for 2025 indicating similar numbers.
Hungarian emigration at record high
József Nógrádi, Strategic Director at Trenkwalder Hungary, a leading HR and workforce services company, told Népszava that the figures are unprecedented.
“Based on feedback, incoming information, economic performance, and societal trends, we expect that more than 40,000 Hungarians left the country in 2025,” he said.
Official government statistics will only be available later in the year, but even preliminary estimates surpass previous high points. The 2015–2016 emigration wave, often cited as the strongest in recent history, saw fewer than 39,000 citizens leave annually. By comparison, 2024 saw 41,300 people emigrate, while returnees also increased, reaching nearly 29,000 – up from 23,860 in 2023. Despite this, the overall effect continues to represent a loss for Hungary’s workforce.
Discrepancy between domestic and international data
According to WMN, domestic statistics may underestimate the scale of the phenomenon. Mirror statistics (data collected by destination countries) suggest that around 50,000 Hungarians may have emigrated in 2024. Eurostat’s figures similarly report higher numbers than Hungarian national statistics.
Young people drive the trend
The trend is particularly pronounced among young adults. Central Statistics Office (KSH) data show that 20–24-year-olds accounted for only 8% of emigrants in 2008, rising steadily to over 16% by 2023. Sociologist and political scientist Andrea Szabó, from the Eötvös Loránd University Social Science Research Centre, told Qubit that Hungarian university students increasingly plan to move abroad: in 2015–2016, 33–37% of students considered emigration, while by 2024 this had risen to 45%.
Another success story of Fidesz gov. HU Gov will say that they are replacing the young with elderly from Germany cause they feel safer in HU than in DE 😀
That’s Hungarians voting with their feet against the disasterous Fidesz government. They see no future for them in Hungary. Young people leave and you are left with a collection of brainwashed Fidesz TV watching seniors collecting their 13th month pension. We have a few Hungarian family members living and working in Vienna. When one was finishing his degree in Austria his grandmother asked if he was coming back to Hungary when he finishes his studies. His reply was no nagymami I can make three times the money in Austria and the prices are the same.
What you describe, in your vignette, Dear Larry – describes the situation throughout The Rural South.
Glad things are better in Austria.
They are definitely not better in the states, and they have not been good since President, Reagan, Clinton, and Bushes, (and all those congresses) allowed Alan Greenspan to dismantle our economy and send it to Malaysia and Mexico.
‘Hungarian emigration hits record highs: Tens of thousands leave the country annually.’
It is sad, but, as most of these are Hungarians of The Modern Left, it has some benefit for the Hungarian nation to have these people far away.
Nope, most of those leaving are normal working people, usually younger generation, with little to no special political views – they can just easily see that their life has better opportunities somewhere else. They just want live a normal life with decent salaries and not being pressured and oppressed by religious conservative pro-Russian authoritarian government.
And this situation wont change unless the political leadership changes in our country.
?!
What are you talking about, Ost?
It is obvious, that people with more nationalistic view leave the nation less. By definition.
And I lived abroead for many years, in Munich, Germany, in Mons Belgium, and in Bern Switzerland. Not by choice, mind you, my Hungarian corporation needed representatives there.
I talk to Hungarian expats, and all of them was opposition aligned. Once I met a supposedly Fidesz suppierter, in 10 years once, mind you, and he was only hinting at it, so it might have been a misunderstanding on my part. These were peopme not the Mi Hazánk variety, but the Momemtum variety. If there was no EU, the pro Eu degeracy support in Hungary would be far higher. But anyone fetishizing the West is there already.
What Mouton said is logically sound, by definition true, and my experiences confirm it.
If you deny this, you just lie to yourself.
The people who are leaving Hungary tend to be professionals who can make a better living somewhere else. These are young people with ambition. The smart ones leave and it is all about having a better life. Who in their right mind would leave their family and friends to move somewhere where they don’t know anyone just because they are “leftists”. What a crock of shit. The end result is a shortage of talented people in Hungary and declining productivity.
Yes, Larry
That’s what your ideology tells you, sure, but I found it more common, that people who left were saying 2 things:
1, the “oppressive” government didn’t let me use drugs.
2, I didn’t go to school, have no creativity for entrepenourship, but I want a higher income still. Why? Because.
Neither is a healthy opinion to have on a societal scale.
And I did talk to these peple. Personally. Hundreds of them. Worked with them, partied with them and slept on their sofa. So I, unlike you, actually know what I talk about.
@Mouton – classic bot behavior: made-up persona, content designed to polarize people, erode trust: Russian spin wearing an American flag. Ignore it.
#commentops – I encourage you to look it up
I and my family moved back to Hungary 3 years ago having lived abroad in many countries for 14 years. The young will always see the grass greener on the other side of the fense… just like I did.. and that sense of wanderlust can be very hard to tame. Travel while your young…,see the world… enjoylife.. but and here is the but… Hungary is also one of the safest and one of the best counties with the most moral common sense to raise a family. No trannie/pedo crap is here, no immigrants to rape our children and take over our towns, free medical/Dentist cover if you pull your weight.. brillant grants/loans to have a home, what country removes incomes taxes from a family if they have 3 kids or more? what country give €60k to buy/removate a property? and we have lovely seasons to enjoy, while having a Langos at lake Balaton. I do here from friends that work in Austria…. o the salary is better bla bla bla… try and buy a house there so!!! Hungarians buy houses in Hungary and cross borders to earn Euros and enjoy a good life in Hungary, nothing wrong with that. Thanks to the present government who brought the county from the shithole commy era to the world stage of EU/Nato membership.. Hungarians have the best opportunities in life, thanks to a great education system, Thanks Fidesz. One can sit on the couch.. drink pálinka and eat shitty pork sausages and get brainwashed by negative news from SOROS or MURDOCK TV feeds and only complain how the grass is greener somewhere else.. or one can get up and see whats real in the world, figure out the truth and live a life of dignity in our own sovereign country. God Bless Hungary. Isten éltesse Magyarországot
I think that this wave of Hungarian immigrants will find a much kinder welcome than Hungray gives to other immigrants. OH, that’s because these are white Christains! Not like those coming to Hungary.