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The country had 10,142,000 inhabitants on 1 January 2003. The population has been declining gradually since the beginning of the 1980s, as a result of a decreasing birth rate and higher mortality rate. Hungary was the first European country to experience the natural growth indicator turning into a negative figure in 1981. In addition, international comparisons indicated that since the middle of the 1960s Hungary showed deteriorating figures in the mortality rates reflecting the health status of the population of the European countries.
The ageing of the population, which is a general phenomenon in Europe, can also be observed in Hungary.
During the last twenty years, the distribution of population according to family status has changed significantly in Hungary. There has been a gradual decline in the number of those living in marriage and, parallel with this trend, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of unmarried men and women. The number of divorces has also increased: in 1980, 346 divorces took place per 1,000 marriages, but this number went up to 554 in 2002. The forecast of the UN and Central Statistical Office Research Institute of Demography (KSH, NKI) prepared in 2000 indicated two basic processes for Hungary - a continuous and significant decrease in the number of population, and a new period of ageing.
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