Natural population decline accelerates further

Hungary’s natural population decline grew in the first nine months of the year as the number of births edged down by 1.2 percent and the number of deaths was up by 5.9 percent compared with the same period last year, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported on Thursday.

Figures show that there were 68,339 births in January-September, down 799 from the same period a year earlier. According to leap-year-adjusted data, the number of births for the period was down 0.8 percent compared with 2016.

The number of deaths was 98,833, up 5,504 compared with last year, KSH said.

The rate of natural population decline (30,494) was 26 percent higher compared with the same period in 2016 (24,191).

The number of marriages fell by an annual 1.9 percent to 42,808.

Source: MTI