Population of Hungary 1800-2020

In 1800, the population of the area of modern-day Hungary was approximately 3.3 million, a figure which would steadily rise in the first two decades of the 19^th century, as modernization driven by rising exports of cash crops resulting from the ongoing Napoleonic wars would see Hungary become a major exporter in Europe. The slowing in population growth in the 1920s can be attributed in part to the economic recession which hit Hungary in the years following Napoleon defeat, as a grain prices collapsed, and economic hardship intensified in the country. Hungary would see a small increase in population growth in the 1860s, as the country would merge with the Austria to form Austria-Hungary in 1967. As industrialization would continue to accelerate in Hungary, the country’s population rise even further, reaching just over seven million by 1900.

While Hungary had enjoyed largely uninterrupted growth throughout the 19^th century, the first half of the 20^th century would see several major disruptions to Hungary’s population growth. Growth would slow greatly in the First World War, as Austria-Hungary would find itself one of the largest combatants in the conflict, losing an estimated 1.8 to 2 million people to the war. Hungary’s population would flatline entirely in the 1940s, as the country would see extensive military losses in the country’s invasion of the Soviet Union alongside Germany, and further loss of civilian life in the German occupation of the country and subsequent deportation and mass-murder of several hundred thousand Hungarian Jews. As a result, Hungary’s population would remain stagnant at just over nine million until the early 1950s.

After remaining stagnant for over a decade, Hungary’s population would spike greatly in the early 1950s, as a combination of a tax on childlessness and strict contraception restrictions implemented by then-Minister of Public Welfare Anna Ratkó would lead to a dramatic expansion in births, causing Hungary’s population to rise by over half a million in just five years. However, this spike would prove only temporary, as the death of Stalin in 1953 and subsequent resignation of much of the Stalinist regime in Hungary would see an end to the pro-natalist policies driving the spike. From 1980 onward, however, Hungary’s population would begin to steadily decline, as a sharp reduction in birth rates, combined with a trend of anti-immigrant policies by the Hungarian government, both before and after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, has led Hungary’s population to fall steadily from its 10.8 million peak in 1980, and in 2020, Hungary is estimated to have a population of just over nine and a half million.