In April 2018, the number of live births in Hungary was 1.9% and that of deceases was 1.6% less than a year earlier. The descending trend in live births has not turned around, and the seasonally adjusted figure is similar to the one we saw in March, i.e. the second-lowest in the last four years.
6,711 children were born in Hungary in April 2018, 127 or 1.9% less than in in the same month of 2017.
The a total of 10,450 people passed away, which corresponds to 1.6% yr/yr decline or numerically 172 fewer deceases than a year earlier. The number of deaths decreased more than that of births, as a result of which natural decrease was 3,739 as opposed to 3,784 in April 2017, which meant a slight improvement of 1.2%.
The picture is similar if we take a look at the first third of the year. 28,476 children were born, down 503 (1.7%) than in January-April 2017. The estimated total fertility rate was 1.43, the same as the value calculated for the same period in the previous year, but lower than 1.5 in the whole of 2017.
47,412 people died by the end of April, which marks a yr/yr decrease of 4.4% (2,183). The reason behind that is that the ‘death wave’ that hit last year and in 2015 (most likely as a consequences of epidemics) did not occur in 2018.
Overall, it seems that Hungarians’ willingness to have children would not increase in Hungary, at least not to the extent that it could compensate for the erosion in the number of women in child-bearing age.
