Hungarian President Katalin Novák has said Hungary will boost its population through supporting the native birth rate and not by relying on immigration.
Novák said that while she thinks that “supporting immigration can be a legitimate answer to the demographic challenges of a country” Hungary “didn’t choose that path.”
The reason for this, she says, is that in Hungary “just as in most or all of the Western developed countries, there is a so-called fertility gap”.
Novák explained that the fertility gap means “the difference between the number of desired children and the number of actually born children.”
Comparing the situation to other countries like Japan she said that young people “would like to have more children than they will at the end of the day,”
“And for that reason, we have to tackle this gap, we have to target this and we have to say that we have to eliminate this fertility gap.” she said.
Mothers of four or more children are currently exempt from income tax in Hungary.
Novák emphasised that while this ‘fertility gap’ persisted, Hungary would not pursue immigration as a means of tackling population decline. “We don’t want to use immigration as a tool in overcoming our demographic difficulties, but we want to concentrate all our efforts in enabling young childbearing age couples who have as many children as they want.” she said.
Last week Gript’s Ben Scallan asked Minister Social Protection Heather Humphrys what if anything her department was doing to address falling birth rates in Ireland.
Irish Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys, who is responsible for pensions, says she's not aware of any plans the Irish government has to increase birthrates, despite the demographic timebomb threatening pensions long-term. Question by @Ben_Scallan #gript pic.twitter.com/SBV3lGPnai
— gript (@griptmedia) October 10, 2023
Humphrys said she was “not aware” of any plans the Irish government has to increase birth rates, despite what Scallan described as “the demographic time bomb threatening pensions long-term”.
Last January Gript reported on how the Hungarian government made mothers under the age of 30 income tax exempt.
Ben Scallan wrote, “The new policy is one of several pro-family schemes implemented by the Hungarian state in recent years, as the country attempts to reverse the trend of declining demographics seen in many countries globally.”
“To this end the eastern European nation has offered zero percent income tax to working adults up until the age of 25, to incentivise young people to enter the workforce and prevent them from emigrating. The country also offers zero percent income tax to mothers who have four or more children, as well as offering financial supports for those buying seven-seater cars.”
“The offer will apply regardless of whether the mother is married, single or divorced, and is said to have a goal of both boosting birthrates nationally, and providing families with a greater household income.”
Read the full report here.