Faster population decline in Hungary

Hungary’s population decline accelerated in 2015 as the number of births rose less than in 2014 and the number of deaths increased after a decline in the previous year, according to a report this week by the Central Statistical Office.

Preliminary figures in the report, quoted by the Hungarian news agency MTI show that the number of live births rose 0.2% to 91,700. The increase slowed from 3.2% in 2014. The number of deaths rose by 4.2% to 131,600 in 2015 after dropping 0.5% in the previous year.

The natural population decrease was 39,900, that is, 4.1 per thousand people, up from 34,600 or 3.5 per thousand in 2014.