Hungary’s population decline slowed in the first four months of the year as the number of births increased by 5.5 percent and the number of deaths decreased by 6.4 percent compared with the same period last year, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported on Thursday.
Preliminary figures show that there were 29,280 births in January-April, up 1,522 from the same period a year earlier. According to leap day-adjusted data, the number of births for the period was up 7.1 percent compared with 2019.
The number of deaths was 45,015, down 3,055 from last year, KSH said. The significant drop was partly the result of the lower than usual number of deaths caused by the flu epidemic.
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The rise in births and the drop in the death rate means that the rate of natural population decline was down 23 percent compared with the same period last year.
The number of marriages rose 1.5-fold to 16,190 compared with the same period last year.
Featured photo by Zsolt Czeglédi/MTI