Economy 19 December 2025, 10:21am

Hungarian population continues to shrink

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Hungary's population continued to decline, shrinking by almost 47,000 in the first 11 months of the year. Meanwhile, the fertility rate fell from 1.39 to 1.31.

According to preliminary data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) on Friday, unfavourable demographic trends continued in November 2025, with 5,582 children being born, and 9,686 people dying during the month. Compared to November 2024, the number of births decreased by 666 or 11% and the number of deaths by 989 or 9.3%.

The natural population decline, calculated as the difference between births and deaths, was 4,104.

There were 7.1 live births and 12.4 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants; the live birth rate was 0.8 lower and the death rate was 1.2 lower than a year earlier. The natural population decline per 1,000 inhabitants fell by 0.4 to 5.3.

January-November balance

Between January and November 2025, a total of 65,913 children were born, which is a decline of 5,269 (7.4%) compared to the same period last year. The decline was particularly sharp at the beginning of the year, with 8.9% fewer live births between January and May than a year earlier. Between June and July, there were 1.7% fewer live births, and between August and November, there were 8.4% fewer.

The total fertility rate per woman decreased from 1.39 to 1.31 over the past year.

There were 35.1 live births for every 1,000 women aged 15–49, which was 2.0 percentage points lower than the previous year.

During the period under review, 112,722 people died, corresponding to a decrease of 3,027 people (2.6%) on an annual basis. However, a different trend was observed in the first half of the year: between January and June, deaths increased by 3.4%, whereas between July and November, they decreased by 9.8% compared to the same periods the previous year.

The natural population decline, calculated as the difference between births and deaths, was 46,809, which compares with 44,567 in january-november 2024.

From January to November, there were 7.6 live births and 12.9 deaths per thousand inhabitants. The live birth rate was 0.6 and the death rate was 0.3 lower per thousand inhabitants than in the same period in 2024. The natural population decline per thousand inhabitants increased by 0.3 to reach 5.4 per thousand. There were 3.3 infant deaths per thousand live births, which was 0.5 lower than the previous year.

Cover image (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images