Magyar Köztársaság

Political Status: Independent kingdom created in 1000; republic proclaimed in 1946; Communist People’s Republic established August 20, 1949; pre-Communist name revived as one of a number of Western-style constitutional changes approved on October 18, 1989.

Area: 35,919 sq. mi. (93,030 sq. km.).

Population: 10,197,119 (2001C); 10,055,000 (2006E).

Major Urban Centers (2005E): BUDAPEST (1,700,000), Debrecen (209,000), Miskolc (189,000), Pécs (169,000), Szeged (162,000), Györ (131,000).

Official Language: Hungarian.

Monetary Unit: Forint (official rate November 2, 2007: 174.52 forints = $1US). (As of 2007 the government was hoping that the euro could be adopted as the nation’s currency by 2010.)

President: Laszlo SOLYOM; elected (as the candidate of the Federation of Young Democrats–Hungarian Civic Alliance and several other parties) in third-round balloting by the National Assembly on June 7, 2005, and sworn ...