More Hungarians moved back to their home country last year than the number of people who have left, which continued the trend of 2019, Marcell Kovács, Head of the Census and Demographic Statistics Department of the Central Statistical Office (KSH), told InfoRádio.
Last year, 23,200 people moved back to Hungary while 19,000 Hungarians – 2,000 people fewer than a year earlier- left the country, the Head of the Census and Demographic Statistics Department of KSH revealed in a recent interview.
Marcell Kovács said the main causes of this phenomenon were the coronavirus epidemic and the restrictions imposed as a result.
This also continues the trend first seen in 2019 that more people are moving back to Hungary rather than leaving the country.
According to the data of KSH, 70% of people who decided to move from Hungary are under 40 years old, with half of them even under the age of 30. These individuals are typically single, unmarried, and want to study or work abroad.
Last year, more Hungarians leaving the country chose Austria as their new home, while fewer people decided to continue their life in the UK and Germany, the other two most common destinations.
In the early 2010s, following the economic crisis and the opening of the labor markets in Germany and Austria, the number of people moving abroad increased significantly, peaking around 2015, said Kovács. This has been gradually declining since then, with the number of those moving back showing a steadily rising trend. The expert of the KSH, however, noted that international migration is difficult to measure, while the number of those moving abroad and those returning are probably also underestimated.
Featured photo illustration by Zoltán Balogh/MTI
