The population in Hungary has fallen by this much

Hungary had a population of 9,604,000 at the start of the latest census on Oct. 1, the Central Statistical Office said on Thursday.

Presenting the preliminary results of the census, Marcell Kovács, the census’s project manager, told a press conference that there were 4,593,000 households in the country last October.

The census counted 4,613,000 men, 4,491,000 women and 1,407,000 children, he said. The economically active population aged between 15 and 64 was 6,201,000, while the elderly population comprising those aged over 65 was 1,995,000.

The natural population loss between the 2011 and 2022 censuses was 464,000, Kovács said. This was mitigated by an influx of 131,000 immigrants, mainly from nearby countries, bringing the total population decline over 11 years to 333,000, he added.

Hungary’s population has been shrinking since 1980 when it reached 10,907,000, Kovács said.

Both the number of births and deaths have been fluctuating over the last 11 years, he said, adding that the birth rate had been increasing up until 2021 after bottoming out in 2011. The fertility rate has risen to over 1.5 from 1.23 since 2011, he said.

The annual number of deaths was around 130,000 over the last 11 years, Kovács said, adding, however, that this number had risen to 141,000 in 2020 and 156,000 in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The elderly make up 21 percent of the population, while children account for 15 percent, he said. The elderly population increased by 318,000, or 19 percent, between the last two censuses, whereas the child population saw a minor and the economically active population a significant decline, he added.