Hungary

Hungary covers 93,030 km² and borders Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, with no sea coast. According to the Central Statistical Office, its population on 1 January 2026 was 9,488,428. The capital is Budapest, the state language Hungarian and the currency the forint.

History

The Hungarians came from the Eurasian steppe and settled the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 9th century — the "conquest of the homeland". Stephen I was crowned king in 1000, and in the 13th century the Turkic Cumans (Kipchaks) also settled in the country. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 the centre and south were under Ottoman rule for 150 years.

Habsburg rule, the 1848 revolution, Austria-Hungary and the post-war Treaty of Trianon (1920) shaped modern Hungary's borders. The 1956 uprising was crushed by Soviet troops, and in 1989 the country again became a republic.

Geography

Most of the country is lowland watered by the Danube and Tisza; the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld) in the east is the westernmost reach of the Eurasian steppe. Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe, and the highest point is Kékes (1,014 m).

Government and links with the Turkic world

Hungary is a parliamentary republic, a member of NATO since 1999 and of the European Union since 2004. Hungarians emphasise their nomadic past and historic ties with the Huns, Cumans and Ottomans; since 2018 Hungary has been an observer of the Organization of Turkic States, and the Great Kurultáj held at Bugac brings together the horse-riding traditions of Turkic and Hungarian peoples.