page_title: Economy of Hungary
section_title: Human capital
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Hungary / Socioeconomic characteristics / Human capital
caption_attribution_description: English: Language learning among students in upper secondary education in Hungary in 2007 (%) - source: Hugarian Central Statisctical Office
context_page_description: The economy of Hungary is a high-income mixed economy, ranked as the 10th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index. Hungary is an OECD member with a very high human development index and a skilled labour force, with the 13th lowest income inequality in the world. The Hungarian economy is the 57th-largest economy in the world with $265.037 billion annual output, and ranks 40th in the world in terms of GDP per capita measured by purchasing power parity. Hungary has an export-oriented market economy with a heavy emphasis on foreign trade; thus the country is the 35th largest export economy in the world. The country had more than $100 billion of exports in 2015, with a high trade surplus of $9.003 billion, of which 79% went to the EU and 21% was extra-EU trade. Hungary's productive capacity is more than 80% privately owned, with 39.1% overall taxation, which funds the country's welfare economy. On the expenditure side, household consumption is the main component of GDP and accounts for 50% of its total, followed by gross fixed capital formation with 22% and government expenditure with 20%.
context_section_description: Education in Hungary is free and compulsory from the age of 5 to 16. The state provides free pre-primary schooling for all children, 8 years of general education and 4 years of upper secondary level general or vocational education. Higher education system follows the three-cycle structure and the credit system of the bologna process. Governments aim to reach European standards and encourage international mobility by putting emphasis on digital literacy, and enhancing foreign language studies: all secondary level schools teach foreign languages and at least one language certificate is needed for the acquisition of a diploma. Over the past decade, this resulted in a drastic increase in the number of people speaking at least one foreign language.
  Hungary's most prestigious universities are:
  Semmelweis University with five schools (medical school, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and physical education).
  Eötvös Loránd University (Eötvos Loránd Tudományegyetem, or ELTE, which is among the top 500 universities in the world)
  Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem, or BME) BME is considered the oldest Institutes of Technology of university rank and structure in the world. Established 1782.
  Corvinus University of Budapest (Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, or BCE)
  Central European University (Közép-európai Egyetem, or CEU)
  University of Pécs (Pécsi Tudományegyetem, or PTE)
  University of Miskolc (Miskolci Egyetem or ME)
  University of Szeged (Szegedi Tudományegyetem or SZTE) In 2010, the QS World University Rankings put the University of Szeged as 451st-500th among universities globally.
  University of Debrecen (Debreceni Egyetem or DE)
  Financial sources for education are mainly provided by the state (making up 5.1-5.3% of the annual GDP). In order to improve the quality of higher education, the government encourages contributions by students and companies. Another important contributor is the EU.
  The system has weaknesses, the most important being segregation and unequal access to quality education. The 2006 PISA report concluded that while students from comprehensive schools did better than the OECD average, pupils from vocational secondary schools did much worse. Another problem is of the higher education's: response to regional and labour market needs is insufficient. Government plans include improving the career guidance system and establishing a national digital network that will enable the tracking of jobs and facilitate the integration into the labour market.
caption: Language learning among students in upper secondary education in Hungary in 2007
exif: {}