Bonds - Family research among Hungarians living beyond the borders
Bonds - Family research among Hungarians living beyond the borders was published by the Mária Kopp Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS), the Youth Research Institute and the Research Institute of National Policy, in which the habits of choosing one’s (life) partner of Hungarians living abroad and Hungarians living in the diaspora were studied, as well as their attitudes towards having children and starting a family. In the case of Transcarpathian Hungarians, the situation of families torn was also discussed.
According to the results of the family research conducted among Hungarians living beyond the borders, in 2023, the majority of the people aged 18-49 were married. Among the participants in the research, the proportion of married people is the highest in Transylvania (51.7%), almost half of the Hungarians in Vojvodina and four out of ten of the Hungarians in Former Upper Hungary are married. At least six out of ten of unmarried people living in relationships in all three regions plan to get married. The largest proportion of them who would marry their current partner are from Vojvodina. The ideal age for getting married in all three regions is considered to be the second half of the twenties: 24.9–25.9 years for women and 27.4–28.4 years for men. They also think similarly about the age for starting a family: 25–26 years for women and 28 years for men are considered the most suitable age for this. On average, the respondents consider 2.21 children to be ideal in a family, while the desired number of children is 2.12. Similarly to Hungarians in the motherland, it is the general characteristic of these three regions that married and religious couples desire more children than cohabiting couples and the non-religious. It was also revealed that the awareness and use of benefits for families across the border (maternity allowance, baby bond) is the highest in Transylvania and Vojvodina, and among the many forms of family support available, the education and child-rearing support is the best known and most popular.
More than two-thirds of the respondents living in the diaspora are married, often in mixed marriages. Less than 58 percent of the respondents speak Hungarian with their partner, while four fifths speak Hungarian with their children. About 80 percent of those participating in the research have children of their own (child by blood, foster or adopted child), while at the same time, the proportion of those who plan to have children in the next five years is not higher than 13 percent.
Today, the Transcarpathian Hungarians live their daily lives in a situation significantly different from other foreign regions in terms of their fragile socio-political conditions. As a result of the war, the number of people living at their home has now decreased to around 100,000. In this research, we can discover the stories of 16 Transcarpathian families, of which nine families live their everyday lives torn apart due to the war, while seven families are trying to find opportunities for prosperity by remaining in Transcarpathia. Through them, we get an insight into the difficult everyday lives of men who are far from their homeland, women who are forced to take on the role of the head of the family, and children who are left without a father.
Compared to a similar research conducted in 2018, it can be seen that there was a shift towards a more traditional family planning concept in Vojvodina, where, on average, people get married earlier and plan the highest number of children. In Transylvania, the more traditional pro-family attitude still prevails, while in Former Upper Hungary, cohabitation outside of marriage and childlessness are the most common. Despite this, it can be concluded that Hungarians are characterized by a family-oriented attitude both here and beyond the borders, most Hungarians want to live in marriage and raise children.
The publication Bonds - Family research among Hungarians living beyond the borders is available under (in Hungarian):
