The past decade saw a demographic turnaround in Hungary, with a 24 percent increase in births, the minister in charge of family affairs said on Friday, commenting on a fresh data release by the Central Statistical Office.
Hungary’s birth rate in the period was the highest in the European Union, Katalin Novák told MTI by phone.
Among the reasons for the demographic turnaround is the number of marriages. Fully 67,000 couples tied the knot last year compared with 35,000 in 2010.
“The coronavirus pandemic may slow the favourable trend of the past years,”
she said, noting the pandemic had an effect on births as well as deaths. But hopefully this effect would not last long, she added.
Novák noted a sharp drop in the number of births in many European countries, including France with a record low rate in 2020 for the first time since 1945. Novák also noted a twelve-month decline reflected in December figures in Germany, Sweden and Latvia.
In Hungary’s case, Novák noted an annual increase in the number of births of 3,000 to 92,000 last year, even with an 8 percent drop in December.
featured image via MTI/PM’s Office/Donát Kékesi