Hungarian population decline slows down

In the first five months of the year, 36,527 children were born, which is 1,664 more than at the same time last year. Within this period, the number of live births was 8.8% higher in January-February and 2.1% higher in March-April than in the same months of 2019. Between January and May 2020, 54,656 people died, which is 3,378 less than in the same period last year.

The decrease may be connected with the fact that this year the flu season was considerably milder than last year. In January 15%, in February 9.9% fewer people passed away than last year, in March and April the number of deaths was 1.4% higher, while in May it was 3.9% lower than a year earlier. As a result of the decrease in the number of deaths and the increase in the number of births, the rate of population decline slowed down by 22% compared to the same period last year.

According to KSH data, the number of new marriages rose: 20,885 couples tied the knot, which is 4,522 more than between January and May last year.

The number of newly registered marriages in January-March and in April rose by 101% and 8.8%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, while in May this number was 30% lower than a year earlier. The figures of April and May can be explained by the ban on group events due to the coronavirus epidemic. There were 9 live births and 13.5 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. The former figure is up 0.4 per thousand points, while the latter is down 0.9 per thousand points compared with the corresponding period last year, so the overall population decline was 1.3 per thousand points lower than a year earlier.

In the first five months of the year, there were 3.9 infant deaths per one thousand live births, which is an increase of 0.1 per thousand points from a year ago. The marriage rate (the number of new marriages per 1000 inhabitants) was 5.1, which is up 1.1 per thousand points, KSH reported.