Why so many Hungarians remain childless

BUDAPEST – In 2014, when she was 26 years old, photographer Zsuzsanna Simon took a bold stand.

She wrote on her stomach with pink lipstick: “I will not give birth until there is a change of government.” She then took two selfies.

Her protest turned into a series in which Simon took photos of other women whose bodies were decorated with the same or a similar phrase.

Ten years later, their actions are more relevant than ever as more and more people in Hungary choose not to have children, despite – or in some cases because of – the family-friendly policies of the ruling nationalist Fidesz party.

Simon, who has no children, says from her Budapest apartment that she “wanted to do something radical.”

“They were average women who wanted to stand up against the government in some way,” she says of the participants in her project.

Low birth rates

Hungary, like many other European countries, is facing low birth rates and a declining population. In 2023, the number of live births in Hungary reached a historic low and the population shrank by 15,000 people, according to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Over the last decade, Hungary’s population has fallen from around 10 million to 9.7 million.

Demographers are particularly interested in women over 40, a cohort that provides insights into women becoming permanently childless rather than simply postponing parenthood. According to recently published results of the 2022 Hungarian census, both the number and the proportion of childless people in this group are increasing.

Fidesz has been in power since 2010 and is trying to halt this population decline without relying on immigration as other European countries have done. In a radio interview in 2022, the country’s populist nationalist-conservative prime minister, Viktor Orban, who has five children, said: “We want to leave the country to our own children, not to foreigners.”

During his term, Fidesz has implemented family-friendly policies, including interest-free loans for married couples with children, housing subsidies and tax exemptions for mothers with four or more children.

But experts say that while these incentives had a modest positive impact on birth rates, they were not enough to reverse the overall trend.

Feeling like second class citizens

Rebecca Laura Racz, a 45-year-old journalist who has written a book about the child freedom movement in Hungary, says that while the community is growing, it is still relatively small and probably numbers in the thousands. Of the people she interviewed, Racz says that childless people are more likely to live in cities and have high levels of education. She estimates that two-thirds of them are in long-term relationships.

Because of the government’s family policy, Racz says, many childless Hungarians feel that the government treats them like second-class citizens. “They say they could only afford a loan, a car or an apartment if they had a child,” says Racz.

The child freedom movement has recently gained momentum around the world. Increasing economic pressures, environmental concerns, evolving societal norms and an increasing focus on individual autonomy have driven this trend.

In Hungary, experts say the key factor stopping people from having children is economic insecurity.

Szandra Kramarics, a social policy researcher, says many young people are not convinced by the government’s offers of financial aid.

“The majority of [people I interviewed] said they are hesitant to have children because they are dissatisfied with health care, education and the lack of space in kindergartens,” she says. “And many.” [people] I just don’t see a future here.

Changing government policies

According to demographer Balazs Kapitany, who spoke to RFE/RL’s Hungarian service in 2023, people’s decision to have children is complicated by Orban’s government changing its policies – regularly introducing new measures and revoking others.

For example, the government’s popular Family Home Creation Discount (CSOK), a program that provided families with financial assistance to purchase, build or expand homes, has now expired. It was replaced by CSOK Plusz, a similar subsidy but with new rules, and Village CSOK, which only applies in certain rural areas and is tied to continuous employment.

“Couples will quickly realize that these measures will not be sustained by the government,” Kapitany told RFE/RL. “And the new incentives will lose their effectiveness.” [people] Don’t rely on them.

Many of Fidesz’s new grants are tied to employment or age. “The government’s goal is not to support everyone,” says Kramarics, noting that the measures are selective and targeted at the middle class.

Tibi, who asked RFE/RL not to use his last name, knows this all too well. Tibi is a member of one of the many Hungarian Facebook groups for childless people. He says that at the beginning of their relationship, he and his partner decided not to have children.

When Tibi bought real estate, he was shocked to see how high the prices were, which many attribute to the impact of subsidized family mortgages – benefits for which Tibi was not eligible.

“What Fidesz calls family policy is a financial trap and families become victims without realizing it,” says Tibi.

High inflation

Despite government financial support for families, there has been record inflation in recent years, which will average 17 percent in 2023.

“This inflation is not offset by the family-friendly tax exemptions,” says Tibi.

According to demographer Kapitany, Hungarian politicians expected too much from this family policy in terms of a population boost.

“Usually there is an effect, but it is small, unspectacular and difficult to measure,” the demographer said. “Decisions about children are complicated and complex. People are not like machines that you throw a coin into and get hot chocolate.”

Despite her photography project, Simon says it’s not politics why she doesn’t want to have children. But she says the Fidesz government has made it difficult for her to make ends meet from day to day.

Her art alone is not enough and she had to take on commercial work and take photographs in a steel mill. And changes to the freelance tax in 2022 have made her life more difficult, she says.

To have children, she says, she just wants to be in a “normal state of mind.”