ROMANIAN REVIEW OF REGIONAL STUDIES, Volume III, Number 2, 2007 DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESSES IN HUNGARY AND THEIR MANIFESTATION IN SMALL TOWNS GÁBOR PIRISI 1 , ANDRÁS TRÓCSÁNYI 2 ABSTRACT – Hungary, belonging more and more to the prestigious group of developed countries, can be characterised increasingly by the demographic characteristics of that type. Ageing population, decreasing number of live births, decreasing population size are commonly used terms when analysing the demographic profile of our country. This simplified picture can be modulated and coloured with the help of spatial data. In spite of the comparatively small-sized and relatively homogenous structure of Hungary, several differences can be found. The network of small towns could be an obvious and representative sample for the spatial investigations since it almost totally covers the area of Hungary, it is numerous enough but still easy to handle. Within a Hungarian geographical context, settlements having a maximum of 30,000 inhabitants and possessing city rank can be defined as small towns. Because of their size and functions, small towns are sensitive enough to illustrate the national demographic tendencies, but they are numerous enough to be split into different groups according to their remarkably diverse character. Traditional historic small towns widely differ from the ones located in the rapidly urbanising agglomerations, even though the socialist new towns, having similar origin, reflect significant demographic variants. Key words: demographic crisis, small towns, demographic types of small towns. The background of demographic processes and what they include The global problems of human populations affect Hungary as well, but due to the special situation, here, the demographic crisis expresses itself just the opposite way to global tendencies. This phenomenon – being quite similar to he demographic processes of well-developed European countries, but at the same time modified by a number of locally special factors – imposes serious social- economic consequences for the present time as well as for the future. Quite naturally, Hungary cannot liberate itself from the determining trends of the surrounding geographic space. The population figure of the country has been decreasing since the mid-1980s. Our history provides some explanation for such tendencies. There were severe military and civilian losses caused by the two world wars, their consequences being felt even today. The emigration wave that was created by the defeat of the 1956 revolution also has far-reaching consequences. Nearly 200,000 people migrated to the West, mostly members of the younger generation, still before founding their families (TRÓCSÁNYI, A. – TÓTH, J., 2002). During the past 60 years, demography politics has, of course, recognized some of these problems and has also intended to treat them. Because the state system was of the dictatorial type, all sorts of possible administrative power were available to achieve this purpose. The banning of abortions as a way of birth control was only one – although quite symbolic – measure made by the so- called Ratkó-period of the late 1940s - early 1950s, named after the Minister of Health under the (early communist, Stalinist) Rákosi-regime. As a result of the drastic measures, the number of births increased spectacularly (21-23 ‰), but the 1956 revolution and then the Kádár-regime characterised by a modest consolidation, this peak died out (13-14 ‰) in a matter of a few years. Moreover, the first signs of the crisis to come later were apparent in the mid- and late 1970s, in the form of the smaller value (17-18 ‰) of secondary birth maximum, which encouraged the government to manage the 1 MSc in Geography, assistant at the Geography Institute, University of Pécs, Hungary. E-mail: pirisig@freemail.hu 2 PhD in Geography, associate professor at the Geography Institute, University of Pécs, Hungary. E-mail: troand@ttk.pte.hu