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Famous Hungarians.jpg
Total population
c. 13.1–14.7 million[note 1]
Regions with significant populations
Neighbors of Hungary c. 2.2 million
 Romania 1,227,623  (2011)[3]
 Slovakia[note 4] 458,467  (2011)[4]
 Serbia 253,899   (2011)[5]
 Ukraine 156,566  (2001)[6]
 Austria 40,583  (2001)[7]
 Croatia 16,595  (2001)[8]
 Slovenia 6,243  (2002)[9]
Rest of Europe c. 0.3–0.5 million
 Germany 120,000  (2004)[10]
 France 100,000 to 200,000  (2004)[10]
 United Kingdom 80,135  (2001)
 Sweden 40,000–70,000
 Czech Republic 14,672  (2001)[11]
 Ireland 8,034  (2011)[12]
 Turkey 6,800  (2001)[13]
 Russia 3,768  (2002)[14]
 Macedonia 2,003  (2002)[15]
North America c. 1.9 million
 United States 1,563,081  (2006)[13]
 Puerto Rico 1,050
 Canada 315,510  (2006)[16]
South America c. 0.15 – 0.2 million
 Brazil 80,000[17]
 Chile 50,000[18]
 Argentina 40,000–50,000[19]
Oceania c. 70,000[13]
 Australia 67,616[20]
 New Zealand 1,476
Asia c. 10,000
 Thailand 3,029
 Philippines 1,114

Roman Catholicism
Protestantism (Calvinism, Lutheranism and Unitarianism).
Greek Catholicism,

Judaism and irreligion.
Part of a series on the
History of Hungary
Coat of arms of Hungary
Prehistory and early history
Middle Ages
Principality 895–1000
High Medieval Kingdom 1000–1301
Late Medieval Kingdom 1301–1526
Ottoman Wars 1366–1526
Early modern history
Habsburg kingdom 1526–1867
Eastern kingdom 1526–1570
Ottoman Hungary 1541–1699
Principality of Transylvania 1570–1711
Late modern period
Rákóczi's War 1703–1711
Revolution of 1848 1848–1849
Austria-Hungary 1867–1918
Lands of the Crown 1867–1918
World War I 1914–1918
Interwar period 1918–1941
Kingdom of Hungary 1920–1946
World War II 1941–1945
Contemporary history
Republic of Hungary 1946–1949
People's Republic 1949–1989
Revolution of 1956  
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Hungarians, also known as Magyars (Hungarian: magyarok), are a nation and ethnic group who speak Hungarian and are primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 13.1–14.7 million Hungarians, of whom 8.5–9.8 million live in today's Hungary (as of 2011).[21] At least 2.2 million Hungarians live in areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the 1918–1920 dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Treaty of Trianon, and are now parts of Hungary's seven neighbouring countries, especially Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine. Significant groups of people with Hungarian ancestry live in various other parts of the world, most of them in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, Chile, and Argentina. Hungarians can be classified into several subgroups according to local linguistic and cultural characteristics; subgroups with distinct identities include the Székely, the Csángó, the Palóc, and the Jassic (Jász) people.


The possible homeland of the Hungarians was situated at the regions of Southern Ural.

The exonym "Hungarian" is thought to be derived from the Bulgar-Turkic On-Ogur (meaning "ten" Ogurs),[22] which was the name of the Utigur Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars, although written sources called Magyars "Hungarians" prior to the conquest of the Carpathian Basin when they still lived on the steppes of Eastern Europe (in 837 "Ungri" mentioned by Georgius Monachus, in 862 "Ungri" by Annales Bertiniani, in 881 "Ungari" by the Annales ex Annalibus Iuvavensibus). The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance, and it is possible that they became its ethnic majority.[22] In the Early Middle Ages the Hungarians had many different names, such as "Ungar" (in German) or "Hungarus".[23] The "H-" prefix is an addition in Medieval Latin.


The Hungarian people refer to themselves by the demonym "Magyar" rather than the term "Hungarian".[22] Magyar is a Finno-Ugric word[25] from the Old Hungarian, mogyër. The term "Magyar" possibly comes from the name of the most prominent Hungarian tribe, called Megyer. The tribal name "Megyer" became "Magyar" referring to the Hungarian people as a whole.[26][27][28] The term Magyar may also come from the Hunnic term "Muageris" or Mugel.[29]

The historical Latin term Natio Hungarica ("Hungarian nation") had a wider meaning, as it once referred to all nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary, irrespective of their ethnicity.

Ethnic affiliations and genetic origins[edit]

The linguistic heritage of the Hungarians comes from Finno-Ugric peoples. A branch of Uralic speakers migrated from their earlier homeland near the Ural mountains and settled in various places in Eastern Europe, until they conquered the Carpathian Basin between the 9th and 10th centuries. Genetically, the present-day Hungarian population preserves much of an older European genetic makeup.[30][31] The vast majority of the Hungarian population in the 10th and 11th centuries, according to genetic and palaeoanthropological studies, showed features of European biological descent.[32][33]

Pre-4th century AD[edit]

During the 4th millennium BC, the Uralic-speaking peoples who were living in the central and southern regions of the Urals split up. Some dispersed towards the west and northwest and came into contact with Iranian speakers who were spreading northwards.[34] From at least 2000 BC onwards, the Ugrian speakers became distinguished from the rest of the Uralic community. Judging by evidence from burial mounds and settlement sites, they interacted with the Andronovo Culture,[35] furthermore, the type of Hungarians of the Conquest period shows related features to that of the Andronovo people.[36]

4th century to c. 830 AD[edit]

In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Hungarians moved to the west of the Ural Mountains to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River known as Bashkiria (Bashkortostan) and Perm Krai.

In the early 8th century, some of the Hungarians moved to the Don River to an area between the Volga, Don and the Seversky Donets rivers.[37] Meanwhile, the descendants of those Hungarians who stayed in Bashkiria remained there as late as 1241.


c. 830 to c. 895[edit]

Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes[38] of the Khazars joined the Hungarians and moved to what the Hungarians call the Etelköz, the territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River, (today's Ukraine).[citation needed] The Hungarians faced their first attack by the Pechenegs around 854,[37] though other sources state that an attack by Pechenegs was the reason for their departure to Etelköz. The new neighbours of the Hungarians were the Varangians and the eastern Slavs. From 862 onwards, the Hungarians (already referred to as the Ungri) along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of looting raids from the Etelköz into the Carpathian Basin, mostly against the Eastern Frankish Empire (Germany) and Great Moravia, but also against the Balaton principality and Bulgaria.[39]

Entering the Carpathian Basin (c. 895)[edit]




Archaeological findings (e.g. in the Polish city of Przemyśl) suggest that many Hungarians remained to the north of the Carpathians after 895/896.[40] There is also a consistent Hungarian population in Transylvania, the Székelys, who comprise 40% of the Hungarians in Romania.[41][42] The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy.

History after 900[edit]


Population growth of the Hungarians (900–1980)

At this time, the Hungarian nation numbered around 400,000 people.[37] The first accurate measurements of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary including ethnic composition were carried out in 1850–51. There is a debate among Hungarian and non-Hungarian (especially Slovak and Romanian) historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure of the region throughout history. Some historians support the theory that the proportion of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages.[46][47][48][49][50] Non-Hungarians numbered hardly more than 20% to 25% of the total population.[46] The Hungarian population began to decrease only at the time of the Ottoman conquest,[46][47][50] reaching as low as around 39% by the end of the 18th century. The decline of the Hungarians was due to the constant wars, Ottoman raids, famines, and plagues during the 150 years of Ottoman rule.[46][47][50] The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Hungarians, so the death toll depleted them at a much higher rate than among other nationalities.[46][50] In the 18th century their proportion declined further because of the influx of new settlers from Europe, especially Slovaks, Serbs, Croats,[citation needed] and Germans.[46][47][50][51] According to the immigrationist theory of the origins of the Romanian people,[52] it is suggested that Romanians entered Transylvania during the same period.[47][51][53] As a consequence of Turkish occupation and Habsburg colonization policies, the country underwent a great change in ethnic composition as its population more than tripled to 8 million between 1720 and 1787, while only 39% of its people were Hungarians, who lived primarily in the centre of the country.[46][47][48][50]


In the 19th century, the proportion of Hungarians in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900 due to higher natural growth and Magyarization. Between 1787 and 1910 number of ethnic Hungarians rose from 2.3 million to 10.2 million due to population explosion, generated by the resettlement of the Great Hungarian Plain and Voivodina by mainly Roman Catholic Hungarian settlers from the northern and western counties of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1715 (after the Ottoman occupation) the Southern Great Plain was nearly uninhabited but now has 1.3 million inhabitants, homogeneous with ethnic Hungarians.







Later influences[edit]



Traditional costumes (18th and 19th century)[edit]

Folklore and Landscape[edit]

See also[edit]



  3. ^ Native Hungarian-speakers.


  1. ^ [2]. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  2. ^ "Hungarian census 2011 – A népesség nyelvismeret és nemek szerint (population by spoken language)". Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Retrieved 17 January 2014. 
  4. ^ 2001 Slovakian Census
  5. ^ 2011 Serbian Census
  6. ^ National composition of population[dead link]
  7. ^ 2001 Austrian census[dead link]
  8. ^ Položaj Nacionalnih Manjina U Republici Hrvatskoj – Zakonodavstvo I Praska
  9. ^ Slovenia
  10. ^ a b Bund Ungarischer Organisationen in Deutschland[dead link]
  11. ^ Národnost ve sčítání lidu v českých zemích[dead link]
  13. ^ a b c "2006 community survey". 2010-10-05. Retrieved 2013-08-22. 
  14. ^ Russia Report to COE[dead link]
  15. ^ Republic of Macedonia – State Statistical Office[dead link]
  16. ^ "The 2006 census". Retrieved 2013-08-22. 
  17. ^ Revista Época Edição 214 24 June 2002[dead link]
  18. ^ Hungarian Immigration in Latin America
  19. ^ "Hungarian Embassy in Buenos Aires 20 June 2009". 2007-03-14. Retrieved 2013-08-22. 
  21. ^ Eurostat. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  24. ^ OED (s.v. "Ugrian"): "Ugri, the name given by early Russian writers to an Asiatic race dwelling east of the Ural Mountains"
  30. ^ "Genetic structure in relation to the history of Hungarian ethnic groups". Human Biology. 1996. 
  31. ^ USA (2013-03-25). "Comparison of maternal lineage and biogeographic analyses of ancient and modern Hungarian populations, ''U.S. National Library of Medicine''". Retrieved 2013-08-22. 
  32. ^ Csanád Bálint (10 2008). "A történeti genetika és az eredetkérdés(ek)". Magyar Tudomány: 1170. Retrieved 2009-10-06. 
  34. ^ Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages. p. 96. 
  39. ^ "Magyars". Retrieved 2013-08-22. 
  42. ^ "Szekler people". Encyclopædia Britannica. 
  43. ^ Stephen Wyley. "The Hungarians of Hungary". Retrieved 2013-08-22. 
  46. ^ a b c d e f g Hungary. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 11, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online
  47. ^ a b c d e f A Country Study: Hungary. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. Retrieved 2009-03-06. 
  48. ^ a b "International Boundary Study – No. 47 – April 15, 1965 – Hungary – Romania (Rumania) Boundary". US Bureau of Intelligence and Research. 
  50. ^ a b c d e f Steven W. Sowards. "Twenty-Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History (The Balkans in the Age of Nationalism), Lecture 4: Hungary and the limits of Habsburg authority". Michigan State University Libraries. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
  51. ^ a b C. A. MaCartney D. Litt. (1962). Hungary A Short History. Edinburgh University Press. 
  52. ^ Schramm 1997, pp. 304., 309.
  53. ^ Robert A. Kann (1980). A history of the Habsburg Empire, 1526–1918. University of California Press. p. 205. ISBN 0-520-04206-9. 
  54. ^ Peaks/waves of immigration[dead link]


  • Molnar, Miklos (2001). A Concise History of Hungary. Cambridge Concise Histories (Fifth printing 2008 ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66736-4. 
  • Korai Magyar Történeti Lexicon (9–14. század) (Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History (9th–14th Centuries)) Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó; 753. ISBN 963-05-6722-9.

External links[edit]

Genetic studies