Hungary

C

Principal Cities

Budapest, the largest city, with a population of 1,708,000 (2003 estimate), is the capital and also the cultural and economic centre of Hungary; its many industries include shipbuilding and metalworking. Other major cities, with their populations, are Debrecen, 206,564 (2002 estimate), the trading centre of a major agricultural region; Miskolc, 182,408 (2002 estimate), the location of iron and steel and other metallurgical industries; Szeged, 163,699 (2002 estimate), a shipping centre for the agricultural products of the Great Hungarian Plain, also noted for its chemical and synthetic-textile industries; and Pécs, 159,794 (2002 estimate), home of small manufacturing industries.

D

Religion

Hungary is traditionally a Roman Catholic country with a large Protestant minority. During the Communist period, from the 1940s to the late 1980s, religious bodies were separated from the State; however, the State Office for Church Affairs exercised control over them. Moreover, the Communist regime dissolved most religious orders and seized the properties of the monasteries. About two thirds of the population is Roman Catholic and about one quarter is Protestant, the chief Protestant groups being the Hungarian Calvinist Reformed Church and the Hungarian Lutheran Church. The Jewish community is estimated to number about 100,000.

E

Language

Hungarian (called “Magyar” by Hungarians), a Finno-Ugric language, is the official language, spoken by the great majority of the population. Eleven other languages are spoken in Hungary, all of them Indo-European but from various sub-families. From the Germanic sub-family, Standard German and Bavarian are mother tongues for some Hungarians. Romanian, a Romance language, is also spoken by some. Three Slavic languages are first languages in Hungary for certain communities: Croatian, Slovak, and Slovenian. Four Indo-Iranian languages—Balkan Romani, Vlax Romani, Carpathian Romani, and Sinte Romani—are mother tongues for minorities. Several non-indigenous languages are also used, most notably Ukrainian, which has around 300,000 speakers.

F

Education

Schooling is compulsory for children in Hungary between the ages of 7 and 16. About 99.4 per cent of the population of Hungary is literate. Primary education is free, and the government pays the bulk of the cost of secondary and advanced schooling. The educational system consists of general, or primary, schools, which comprise the first eight grades; secondary grammar schools for academic work; technical schools; and institutions of higher learning. Emphasis is placed on vocational training and on education in technical subjects. In 2002–2003, 5.8 per cent of GNP was expended on education.

In 2000 enrolment at some 3,814 primary schools totalled about 489,768 children. Approximately 1,006,546 students attended secondary school in 1998–1999.

Of the 16 public university-level institutions in Hungary, the most important are: the Eötvös Loránd University of Arts and Sciences, Budapest (1635), the University of Pécs (1367), the University of Miskolc (1735), and the University of Debrecen (1912). In 2001–2002 354,386 students were enrolled in colleges and universities. Most of the colleges specialize in teacher training, technical subjects, agriculture, or in other vocations.

G

Culture

The ancient Magyars had a flourishing pagan culture, which utilized Eastern strains in its folktales, folk art, and folk music. Following the Hungarian conversion to Christianity in the 10th century, pagan and Eastern cultural elements were displaced by Western cultural and social patterns, and Latin became the official and literary language. From the 15th into the 20th century Hungary was often considered the “protecting bastion of Western civilization”, because, unlike the cultures beyond its eastern borders, it has assimilated many Western influences. During the 15th century Italian artists and scholars were employed to introduce the humanistic Renaissance, and in the 16th century during the Reformation the vernacular replaced Latin. In the 18th and 19th centuries Hungary absorbed the French Enlightenment and Western European liberalism. Hungarian literature enjoyed strong autonomous development. Dominant in the early 20th century was the “West” school of Hungarian intellectuals, who favoured Hungarian cultural elements compatible with modern Western culture. After World War II the Communist regime made definite attempts to superimpose Soviet cultural patterns on the country. Imre Kertesz won the 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature.