Something happened last year that has not been seen since it joined the European Union in 2004: More people have returned to Hungary than immigrants.
Last year, the immigration balance in Hungary was 1272 people without foreigners born abroad – Notice Portfolio.hu in the Demographic Yearbook published by the Central Bureau of Statistics. “According to the Census Bureau, 21,900 Hungarians immigrated last year, while 23,172 returned home, resulting in the positive balance mentioned above.”
The data also shows that return migration has been nearly stagnant for years, while the propensity to migrate is declining. Demographically, 2014 was the most painful year, when Hungary had a negative balance of 20,000 people, which is now achieved, the newspaper writes.
According to data from civil society organizations, in 2019, a total of more than 470,000 Hungarian citizens were living in European countries. As we wrote about it several times in previous years, the primary destinations were Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. According to official data, in 2019 there were approximately 200,000 Hungarians in Germany, about 83,000 in Austria and 78,000 in the UK.
Incidentally, the Demographic Yearbook also supports the previous view that immigrants are primarily the “most valuable” people of working age. Last year, more than 40 percent of all registered immigrants came from the 15-29 age group, 26 percent were between 30 and 39 years old, while 18.4 percent were between 40 and 49 years old.
