In the spirit of family-friendly governance, funds for families have increased every year since 2010, and this year, they already exceeded HUF 3.300 trillion (€8 billion), State Secretary for Families of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation Zsófia Koncz announced on Wednesday on her social media page.
Koncz wrote in her post that this is more than three and a half times the amount of support in 2010 and is also outstanding in European comparison.
One of the government’s important family policy goals is to support home building, and they can count on the cooperation of the banks in this effort, according to Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet.
She added that at the board meeting of the Hungarian Bank Association, she gave a presentation on the results so far and the objectives of the new economic policy action plan affecting families.
“I trust that as many people as possible will confirm the government’s measures to help families in the national consultation,” said the state secretary.
Hungary’s birthrate outperforms a number of neighboring states, such as Poland. In 2023, Hungary’s birth rate was 1.52 compared to Poland’s record low below 1.2.
Most of the new babies in Hungary are born to ethnic Hungarians, whereas many of the children born in Western European countries are born to foreigners. In countries like France, where the rate is above 1.7, experts believe that ethnic French are between 1 and 1.2.
In order to replace the population, a rate of 2.1 is required.
Hungary’s child benefits have no doubt helped boost the birthrate, but to what degree is hard to tease out. Hungarians still face pressure from lower wages and high housing prices, even if there is government support in those areas for those who choose to have children. In addition, Hungary is subject to the same cultural and modernity factors that have fueled a drop in children being born across the developed world.
Hungary has been unable to achieve this goal, but no other European country has managed to either in recent decades, with the exception of the Faroe Islands. In fact, Europe has experienced a record low birth rate as of last year, and experts expect this trend to only accelerate in the coming years, as the pool of women able to give birth shrinks.
