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People
Cultural Demography
Today, ethnic Hungarians (Magyar) comprise nearly 90 percent of a total population of around 10 million. Four percent are Roma (occasionally referred to as "Gypsies," although some Roma find the term pejorative). Germans, Serbs, Slovaks, and Romanians make up the remainder.
Hungarian (Magyar) is the predominant language in Hungary. German, Romani, Romainian, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian and Croatian are also spoken by small communities and are considered living languages in Hungary.
In terms of religious affiliation, 68 percent of Hungarians are Roman Catholic; 20 percent are Calvinists; 8 percent claim no religious affiliation or call themselves "atheist" while 5 percent are Lutherans.
Human Development
According to recent estimates, Hungarians have an average life expectancy at birth of 72 years (68 years for males, 76 years for females). The infant mortality rate is 8.58 deaths per 1,000 live births. The population has an estimated literacy rate of 99 percent. About 5.2 percent of GDP is spent in the country on educational expenditures. About 8.2 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Access to sanitation, water, and health care is considered to be generally excellent.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Hungary in the very high human development category, at 36th place.
Editor's Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com; see Bibliography for research sources.
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