Hungary country profile

27 August 2006
by eub2 -- last modified 07 September 2016

Formerly communist Hungary is one of the ten Eastern European countries that acceded to the European Union on 1 May 2004. Hungary is a landlocked state with many neighbours – Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.

Magyar Köztársaság

Hungary is a landlocked state with many neighbours – Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. It is mostly flat, with low mountains in the north. Lake Balaton, a popular tourist centre, is the largest lake in central Europe.

The ancestors of ethnic Hungarians were the Magyar tribes, who moved into the Carpathian Basin in 896, conquering the people already in the region. Hungary became a Christian kingdom under St Stephen in the year 1000. The Hungarian language is unlike the other neighbouring languages and is only distantly related to Finnish and Estonian.

The capital city, Budapest, which originally was two separate cities: Buda and Pest, straddles the River Danube. It is rich in history and culture and famed for its curative springs. Hungary has a single-chamber parliament or national assembly whose 386 members are elected by voters every four years.

Hungary has some limited natural resources (bauxite, coal, and natural gas), as well as fertile soils and arable land. Hungarian wines are drunk throughout Europe. The country‘s main manufactured exports include machinery and transport equipment, foodstuffs and chemicals.

Hungary is a highly musical country whose traditional folk music inspired its great composers such as Liszt, Bartók and Kodály.

Official name: Republic of Hungary

Area (km²): 93 000

Population: 9,855,571 (2015)

Capital: Budapest

National holiday: 15 March

Currency: Hungarian Forint HUF

Date of joining: 01 May 2004

Head of state: Janos Ader (since 10 May 2012)

Head of government: Prime Minister Viktro Orban (since 29 May 2010)

GDP (millions €): $258.4 billion (2015 est.)

GDP per capita in PPP: $ 26,200 (2015 est.)

Real growth rate of GDP:1.4% (2011 est.); 1.3% (2010 est.)

Unemployment rate: 10.9% (2011 est.); 11.2% (2010 est.)

National debt as % of GDP: 82.6% (2011 est.)

Inflation: 3.9% (2011 est.); 4.9% (2010 est.)

Public deficit/surplus as % of GDP: -2.9% (2011 est.)

Source: Eurostat

Links

Head of State: www.keh.hu
Government: www.miniszterelnok.hu
Head of Government: www.meh.hu
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: www.kormany.hu/
Parliament: http://www.mkogy.hu

Map of Hungary

Source: European Commission, CIA - The World Factbook