Hungary

The National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 provides long term direction for the improvement of living conditions for youth and helps stakeholders in the field plan, organise and implement measures related to youth.

Published on October 4, 2023
Updated on February 12, 2024

Definition of youth

According to the EU Youth Wiki, "there is no universally accepted definition of youth." The National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 calls for youth surveys to be conducted every four years, which would target the age group of 15 to 29 years old. The Youth Policy Programme for the Future Generation (2012) defines youth as 14 to 35 years of age.

Definition 1
15 - 29 years
Definition 2
14 - 35 years

Voting Rights

Majority age
18 years
Voting age
18 years
Criminal responsibility
15 years

Candidacy age

Lower House
18 years
Upper House
--- (unicameral)
President
--- (tbc)

Marriage & Gender

Without parental consent
Female
18 years
Male
18 years
With parental consent
Female
16 years
Male
16 years

Source: UNSD, UNDESA, ILGA

Is same-sex marriage legalized?
Female
Partly *
Male
Partly *
Are other genders recognised?
No

Policy & Legislation

Is there a national youth policy?
Yes

According to the EU Youth Wiki, the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 provides long term direction for the improvement of living conditions for youth and helps stakeholders in the field plan, organise and implement measures related to youth.

The three main objectives of the strategy are:

  1. Fostering equal opportunities to prevent the social exclusion and marginalisation of young people;
  2. Developing the relationship between Hungarian youths living in Hungary and beyond the borders to pass down their cultural traditions to future generations and to represent the values and objectives of the social and youth policies declared by the European Union;
  3. To develop society's approach in order to meet the set of criteria for sustainable development.

The government has also adopted the Youth Policy Programme for the Future Generation (2012), which introduces a new approach to thinking about youth and acts as a "framework programme that defines the government's youth policy goals, the necessary areas of intervention, and the series of measures necessary to achieve the desired effect." It identifies four areas for intervention:

  1. Citizenship;
  2. Housing and starting a family;
  3. Career and self-sufficiency;
  4. Leisure time - sport, entertainment, and culture.

According to the EU Youth Wiki, the programme has not yet been continued since the pandemic, because an alternative organisational framework may be adopted in 2023 once a decision has been made on the use of funds for the 2020-2027 EU budget cycle.

Public Institutions

Is there a governmental authority that is primarily responsible for youth?
Yes

Since the formation of a new government in 2022, the youth sector is part of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (KIM). According to the Organisational and Operational Regulations of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the State Secretariat for Families within KIM exercises "professional and political control in the performance of youth policy tasks" and "is responsible for youth policy development." Furthermore, the State Secretariat for Families coordinates the Deputy State Secretariat for Youth Affairs and the Department of Youth Affairs. According to the EU Youth Wiki, in 2023 the Deputy State Secretariat for Youth Affairs will focus on mental health, career guidance, and employment.

Youth & Representation

Does the country have a national youth organization or association?
Yes

The National Youth Council (NIT) is an umbrella for youth organisations in Hungary that considers the "development of youth affairs and raising the attention of young people to public life issues to be our mission." According to its website, NIT aims to:

  • Represent young people and member organisations;
  • Reach young people and convey their problems to decision-makers;
  • Create a dialogue between representatives of the youth sector;
  • Make matters related to youth understandable and accessible to the public;
  • Develop the youth sector;
  • Facilitate the realisation of the horizontal goals of the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024.

NIT also represents youth at the international and European level and is a member of the European Youth Forum.

Youth work

Is youth work a formally recognised profession?
Yes

While there is no formal definition of youth work nor specific youth work strategy or law, the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 does contain a specific objective on youth work. The strategy calls to strengthen the educational objectives of youth work, elaborate the qualification requirements and training standards, and recognize the equality of the professions of youth assistants and youth specialists. According to the EU Youth Wiki, the current youth worker education is at the BA level. While the programme name does not include youth work, the Youth Community Coordination specialisation of the Bachelors in Community Coordination serves as formal educational background to youth work.

Budget & Spending

Does the national youth policy have a dedicated budget?
No

According to the Proposed Law on the Central Budget of Hungary 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (KIM) is allocated HUF 951.7 billion (USD 2.8 billion). While there is no specific budget allocated to the National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 nor the Youth Policy Programme for the Future Generation (2012), the central budget does allocate HUF 2.2 billion (USD 6.5 million) to children, youth, and family policy programmes.

Contextual Figures

Liberal Democracy Index
445
Youth Progress Index
80.56

Economic Indicators

GDP per capita
$18772.14
Human Development Index
0.846
Gini coefficient
29.7

Additional background

The National Youth Strategy 2009-2024 calls for youth surveys that study youth between 15 and 29 years old to be conducted every four years. The 2020 Youth Survey reports the following:

  • 44% of young Hungarians have experienced some kind of change in their lives due to the coronavirus pandemic.
  • 16% of youth have volunteered, every second of them has been an active volunteer in the past year, and a fifth of them plan to volunteer in the future. The most popular areas for volunteering are environmental and animal protection and healthcare.
  • 11% of youth are married and 15% live in a cohabitation relationship. The majority of unmarried people (65%), i.e. almost half (48%) of all young people in Hungary, are single. 28% of young people agree with the statement that nowadays it is easy to find a partner.
  • 41% of youth are studying in the school system, which is the same as it was four years ago. 27% want to study further.
  • 55% of youth are active in the labour market, and more than half (56%) of them feel that their job is secure.
  • 95% of young people identify themselves as Hungarian. The Hungarian identity has strengthened compared to the previous study in 2016. Among the elements of identity measured on a five-point scale, the statement "I feel Hungarian" achieved the highest average value of 4.4 (in 2016, it had an average value of 4.3), while the lowest was "Hungary is the best country to live in," which received an average value of 3.0 (in 2016, it had an average value of 3.2).
  • Youth are more interested in politics compared to previous research. However, overall, they are still characterised by low political interest (an average of 2.4 on a five-point scale).
  • The proportion of 15-29-year-olds with internet access and their own smartphone continued to increase. At least nine out of ten young people have internet at home (93%) and own a smartphone (97%).
  • The proportion of daily smokers has shown an increasing trend since 2004. Currently, 17% of youth smoke on a daily basis. 13% of youth consume energy drinks at least daily (in 2016, 10 percent consumed energy drinks at least once a day).
  • Roughly half of young people are religious intheir own way (49%). Every fifth respondent definitely believes in God (21 percent).
  • In assessment of subjective financial situation, the proportion of those who get along well with their financial position is the highest (57%), which signifies a significant increase compared to 2012 (32%) and 2016 (43%).

Sources

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