Demographic portrait of Hungary 2009 [antikvár]

PREFACELow fertility, ageing, migration, population development and the like are not only basic topics of demography but belong to the most exciting issues of public interest today. These phenomena are studied by many and approached in various ways but are not easily clarified and are sometimes simplified. Having followed discussions in public life, opinions expressed by socio-political deci-sion-makers, having answered questions of the press, and having consulted students interested in the subject the researchers of the Demographic Research Institute of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office have similarly come to this conclusion. It seems that the actual research results are familiar only to the narrow circle of people with inside knowledge, so they do not reach the public and those in the position to form public opinion. Consequently we decided to issue a publication more or less regularly, covering all basic issues of demography in short and easily understandable chapters. The present volume entitled Demographic Portrait of Hungary 2009 is the first of the scheduled row of these publications.Informing the general public about population issues they need to know requires approaches and techniques unusual for a researcher. We have to omit references andthe strict enumeration of all bibliographical items supporting our statements as well as the extended discussion of relevant theories and methods. The bibliographies at the end of the individual chapters and other contributions of the authors provide further information for those interested in the details. This time our primary aim is, however, to make the basic information about the population issues available for the general public.We plan to publish a similar report every three years, since although demographic processes are usually slow, our world today is apt to produce abrupt changes. So the intended timing seems justified.The book covers all major fields of demography. We deal with classical topics like fertility, nuptiality, mortality, ageing, and migration, their basic tendencies and interpretation. As regards items like family policy and retirement the specific Hungarian arrangements are emphasized. The probably most discussed subject of population projection, arousing general interest, is included, also.The structure of the individual chapters is uniform.The subjects are discussed consistently in international comparison, as it is indispensable for the better understanding of the characteristically Hungarian phenomena. We find it especially important to compare the Hungarian results not only with those of Western Europe but also with those of the former socialist countries. As regards perspective, we concentrate on recent developments (which speaking demo-graphically means the past two or three years) but in certain cases the introduction of longer preceding periods proved inevitable. We usually referred to the basic tendencies of the two decades since the change of