Compared to many other nations, Hungary does not have many people. Its entire population is only a little over 10 million.
About 90% of the population are ethnic Hungarians - they are descendants of the Magyars. The remainder of the population consist of Gypsies; people of Germanic background; and small number of Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks and Croats.
Today about 30% of all Hungarians in the world live outside of Hungary. Many live in the countries that border on Hungary, such as Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Ukraine. Areas of these countries were once part of the larger
Austria-Hungary territory. Many Hungarians also live in Australia, western Europe, Canada and the United States.
Even though almost half of all Hungarians live in the countryside, only one in five people works on farm. Yet agriculture is a big
industry. Hungarians grow almost all the food they need. The major Hungarian crops are corn and wheat. Some barley, rye and oats are also grown. Sugar beets are very important crop, as are onions and peppers for making paprika. Paprika is a spice made from ground red peppers. It is widely used in Hungarian cooking. Fruits such as apricots, pears, cherries, apples and plums are plentiful. Hungarians grow grapes and produce wine as well. Much of wine is sold to western Europe and the United States.
The Hungarian language , which is also known as Magyar, is very different from the languages spoken in western Europe.
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Although it has the same alphabet as English, Hungarian uses accent marks on the letters to show how words are pronounced. Hungarian words are often very long. Another feature of the Hungarian language is that there are no separate terms of "he" and "she". As a
result, Hungarians who learn English often confuse "he" and "she", saying one when they mean the other. Hungarians are proud of their language, which is spoken throughout the country. Tourist in large cities will find, though, that many Hungarians also speak German and English.
Families are closely knit in Hungary. Most people live in nuclear families. However, people are also close to members of their extended family, like grandparents, aunts,
uncles, cousins. All of these people usually get together to celebrate the holidays, either over a hearty meal at home or in a nearby restaurant.
