PEST - Population
Changing migration patterns
With a population of 1.1 million at the beginning of 2003, Pest has, after Budapest, the second highest population density (173 inhabitants per square kilometre) and is the second most populous county in Hungary. Between 1998 and 2003 the county's population increased by more than 82 thousand, representing a rise of +8.1%. About 20% of this was due to natural increase and nearly 80% to migration from all parts of the country. The driving force for this great migration wave was the shortage of labour in Budapest: thus two-thirds of the settled in the built-up area surrounding Budapest.
During the 1990s, the number of deaths has each year exceeded the number of births. The population increases are due solely to the turn-around in the migration trends of the 1980s: new settlers to the county tend now come mainly from Budapest, favouring the more pleasant suburban belt that surrounds the capital.
In 1999, a third of the residents of the county were under 25, while this share was one percentage point lower compared to the national level. However, the proportion of people over 65, at 12.4%, was lower compared to the national average (14.3%). The important mortality rate (13.3 per thousand inhabitants in 1999, which is however lower compared to the national average) was not completely counterbalanced by a birth rate of 10 per thousand inhabitants. However, the birth rate is higher compared to the Central Hungary's average while the death rate is lower. Infant mortality has decreased at 7.8 per 1 000 live births (1999 figures).
After Budapest, the county of Pest has the largest number of resident foreign nationals (around 13 thousand), accounting for 11% of all foreign nationals residing in the country.
Despite the positive developments in the last few years in the county of Pest, than whole country too, increase of life expectancy in the last years. Thus, in 2002 the life expectancy at birth of Pest men and women were 68.6 and 76.4 years, respectively.
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