Hungary

THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN NATION of Hungary was part of the pre-World War I Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War II, Hungary was incorporated into the Soviet bloc. An attempt to withdraw from this alliance in 1956 was quashed by Soviet military might. Despite this, Hungary developed a more liberal brand of communism that became known as “Goulash Communism.” The Republic of Hungary was established after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ushering in the transition to a market economy. Hungary joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999 and became a member of the European Union in 2004.

Hungary's diversified economy is heavily dominated by services, which employs 66.7 percent of the labor force. Approximately 80 percent of Hungary's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from the private sector. Hungary has shown strong economic growth, partly because of billions of dollars from foreign investors that have poured into Hungary during the post-transition period. While unemployment remains a concern, the unemployment rate has been reduced to 5.9 percent.

In the late 1980s, Hungary instituted a program of social assistance in which approximately one-third of the GDP was spent on social programs, mostly on cash benefits. From 1987 to 1989, the rate of poverty in Hungary increased from 20 to 26 percent. Yet it is clear that more people would have been living in poverty without government aid. By 1989 four out of every 10 persons receiving benefits were no longer poor. In the 21st century, Hungary is an upper-middle-income nation with a per capita income of $14,900. Some 17.3 percent of the population live in poverty, and 2.5 percent of Hungarians are malnourished. After the transition to a market economy, poor people were likely to be unemployed, receiving social support, elderly, female, or very young.

The Hungarian government initiated the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion to address the problem of poverty, and additional antipoverty measures were adopted after entry into the European Union. While inequality is at a low level in Hungary, it continues to exist. The country is ranked 24.4 percent on the Gini Index of Human Inequality. The poorest 20 percent possess only 7.7 percent of resources while the richest 20 percent claim 37.5 percent of resources.

The Hungarian population of 10,006,835 experiences a life expectancy of 72.4 years, and life expectancy has been steadily increasing over the last several decades. With a life span of 76.89 years, females outlive males (68.18) by almost nine years. The median age in Hungary is 38.57 years. Nearly 16 percent of the population are under the age of 14, and over 15 percent have reached the age of 65. Only one percent of the population lack access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation. There are 355 physicians per 100,000 residents, and 95 to 100 percent of Hungarians have access to affordable essential drugs.

Infant mortality is relatively low in Hungary at a rate of eight deaths per 1,000 live births, a decline from 36 per 1,000 in the 1970s. Females (7.83 deaths per 1,000 live births) have an advantage over males (9.27 deaths per 1,000 live births). Between 1970 and 2003, the mortality rate of children under the age of 5 fell from 39 to seven deaths per 1,000. Nine percent of Hungarian infants are underweight at birth, and 2.2 percent of under-5s are malnourished. Three percent of under-5s experience moderate to severe stunting, and two percent suffer from moderate to severe wasting. Among children from birth to 23 months, 99 percent receive necessary immunizations.

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