Not for forty years had so many people got married as up to March in 2020, as between January and March this year, 12,271 couples got married, the Minister of State for Family and Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Human Capacities informed the Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday.

Katalin Novák highlighted that this figure is double that recorded last year.

In the first quarter of this year, all demographic indicators shifted in a positive direction: during the period between January and March, 1,349 more children were born than during last year’s corresponding period, and the rate of population decline decreased by almost thirty per cent, the Minister of State said, taking the view that this is also related to the introduction of the family protection action plan.

Ms. Novák also highlighted that compared with 2010, by 2019 the number of marriages increased by 84 per cent, the number of children born increased by 20 per cent, while the number of divorces decreased by 30 per cent.

In 2010 a family-friendly turnaround took place in Hungary, Hungarian people’s faith in the future returned, and thanks to this, ever more people have the courage to get married, to establish a family and to raise children, the Minister of State said, adding that she sincerely hopes that this positive trend will not be disrupted by the coronavirus epidemic and “our nation will become ever younger and ever more populous”.

(Ministry of Human Capacities / MTI)