Hungary Country Overview
Where is Hungary located? Hungary is a country in Central Europe, completely surrounded by other countries and found in the Pannonian Basin. The time zone that applies there is the Central European time zone. This can also be read on the time zone map, which divides the countries into world time zones according to their location. In the Central European Time Zone, there is a standard difference of +1 hour to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). In the summer months, the time difference increases by +2 hours when the clocks are put forward one hour for daylight saving time.
Bordering Countries of Hungary
According to abbreviationfinder, Hungary is bordered by seven countries in Central Europe: Austria to the west, Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, and Slovenia to the southwest. The total length of its land borders is 2,106 kilometers.
The Hungary-Austria border runs for 366 kilometers from west to east along Burgenland and Győr-Moson-Sopron counties. This boundary was established as part of a peace treaty signed between both countries in 1921 which ended years of conflict in this region.
The Hungary-Slovakia border runs for 676 kilometers from north to south along Banská Bystrica Region and Košice Region. This boundary was established as part of a peace treaty signed between both countries in 1920 which ended years of conflict in this region.
The Hungary-Ukraine border runs for 103 kilometers from northeast to southwest along Zakarpattia Oblast. This boundary was established as part of a peace treaty signed between both countries in 1945 which ended years of conflict in this region.
The Hungary-Romania border runs for 443 kilometers from east to west along Satu Mare County and Bihor County. This boundary was established as part of a peace treaty signed between both countries in 1940 which ended years of conflict in this region.
The Hungary-Serbia border runs for 151 kilometers from south to north along Vojvodina Province and Northern Banat District. This boundary was established as part of a peace treaty signed between both countries in 1919 which ended years of conflict in this region.
The Hungary-Croatia border runs for 329 kilometers from south to north along Baranya County and Međimurje County. This boundary was established as part of a peace treaty signed between both countries in 1991 which ended years of conflict in this region.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Hungary is 9,771,827, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 9,771,827 |
| Population growth rate | -0.28% |
| Birth rate | 9.00 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 75.24 years |
| Men life expectancy | 71.50 years |
| Women life expectancy | 79.19 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 14.66% |
| 15-64 years | 65.84% |
| 65 years and above | 19.50% |
| Median age | 41.40 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.91 |
| Population density | 105.04 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 65.10% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 94% Hungary; “Nationalities”: Armenians, Bulgarians, Germans, Greeks, Croats, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Ruthenians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Ukrainians; Proportion of foreigners 2015: 1.5% | |
| Religions | |
| Catholics (Roman Catholic) 67.5%, Calvinist 20%, Lutheran 5%, Atheist and Other 7.5% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.845 |
| HDI ranking | 43rd out of 194 |
People in Hungary
Almost 10 million people live in Hungary. 1.7 million of them live in the capital Budapest.
About 85 out of 100 Hungarians are also ethnic Hungarians, so they belong to the Hungarians. They refer to themselves as Magyars (read: Majars). The proportion of Roma in the country is quite large (3.1 percent). Roma are groups of people who speak a common language, Romani. The Roma have no land of their own, but are a minority wherever they live.
Smaller minorities in Hungary are Germans (1.3 percent), Slovaks (0.3 percent), Romanians (0.3 percent) and Croats (0.2 percent). The lack of numbers did not explain their membership in a particular ethnic group.
The Germans living in Hungary are mostly called Danube Swabians. A lot of people from Swabia emigrated to Hungary between the 17th and 19th centuries. They were recruited to settle in Hungary. However, not all Germans living in Hungary come from there, which is why one simply speaks of Hungarian Germans.
72 out of 100 Hungarians live in a city. Each woman has an average of 1.4 children. The average age is 43.6 years. The Hungarian population is declining and aging due to the low birth rate. The average life expectancy is 76.7 years (men 73; women 80.6 years).
Languages in Hungary
The official language in Hungary is Hungarian. Almost all Hungarians speak Hungarian (99.6 percent).
Hungarian is a Finnish-Ugric language. It is related to Finnish and Estonian. Several thousand years ago there was once a common original language, but then the languages separated. A Finn cannot understand Hungary. The relationship between the languages is particularly evident in their structure. Most of the other languages spoken in Europe, however, belong to the Indo-European languages.
Hungarian is written with Latin letters. These are the ones we write with too. Every letter is always pronounced the same in Hungarian. In German, for example, the e can be pronounced differently, it is different in Hungarian. If a vowel is pronounced long, it always has an accent, for example bór. A special feature are ő and ű, both of which have a double accent, which indicates that ö and ü are spoken long. Every Hungarian word is also stressed on the first syllable.
There are combinations of two or even three letters in Hungarian, but they count as one letter. These include cs (pronounced ch), dz (pronounced ds), dzs (pronounced dsch) and gy (pronounced dj as in the French word dieu). An s is always spoken like sch and sz like ss (for example in class). So there are some differences in pronunciation from German.
Religions in Hungary
37 percent are Roman Catholic and eleven percent belong to the Evangelical Reformed Church. Two percent are Evangelical Lutheran. That makes about half of the population Christian. Very small minorities are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Orthodox Christians or Jews. Many Hungarians are not even members of a church or did not provide any information when they were asked.