International Roma Day
On the occasion of the International Roma Day, the Mária Kopp Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS) has collected the main achievements of the Roma community of the past years and the challenges that our society needs to address together. This year marks the 35th International Roma Day celebrated worldwide, which aims to raise awareness of social issues affecting Roma people, as well as promoting culture.
More and more Roma people are completing their school education, and the proportion of people with high school diploma or higher education is increasing. Looking at data from the last two censuses, while 1.2 per cent of people aged 15 and over had post-secondary diploma in 2011, this figure had increased almost two and a half times to 2.9 per cent by 2022. The proportion with a high school diploma increased from 5 percent to 11 percent. Moreover, there is a significant improvement in primary education: the share of those with less than 8th grade of primary school has decreased from 23 percent to 13 percent.
The stability of Roma families is key: according to the KINCS survey of values among Roma communities, the family is the most important value for 95 per cent of respondents. Nine out of ten respondents are mostly or always satisfied with their family relationships. After family, health and work are the most important. Seven out of ten Roma are satisfied with their job, and almost as many are content with their boss. However, four out of ten respondents are not or rarely satisfied with their financial situation. Two thirds of Roma feel happy, and half are completely or rather satisfied with their lives.
However, despite these positive trends, further progress is needed in a number of areas. According to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), employment is on the rise, with 40.1% of Roma people of working age working in registered jobs in 2015 and 49.4% in 2024. The unemployment rate among the Roma population has decreased by 7 percentage points compared to 2015, from 27.8 percent to 21.1 percent. The share of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) has been decreasing, from 41 per cent in 2015 to just over 36 per cent in 2024. The number of early school leavers - those who do not obtain a qualification by the age of 18-24 - is stagnating.
A comparison of census data shows that there has also been a noticeable change in housing conditions. The proportion of dwellings connected to public sewerage has risen from 48% to nearly 69%, while the proportion of dwellings with piped drinking water has increased from 81% to 91%. However, wood-burning heating is still the most common among Roma, with 74 percent of households using wood in 2011 and 63 percent in 2022. The improving trend is shown by the fact that the number of households with gas heating increased by 8.1 percentage points, from 27 percent in 2011 to 35 percent in 2022.
According to KINCS research among Roma women and girls, women are becoming increasingly involved in the development of their career: 79.6 percent plan to obtain a profession and/or a high school diploma, and 17 percent also want to obtain a degree. Mothers want their daughters to continue their education. Roma girls plan to give birth to their first child at 23-24 years of age, and on average they are thinking of having two children. 89% say that having a suitable partner and financial and environmental security are the most important conditions for starting a family.
