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Hungarians Magyarok
Saint Stephen I Matthias Corvinus Gábor Bethlen Béla Bartók Tivadar Kosztka János Bolyai Loránd Eötvös József Eötvös
Total population
c. 15.0 million
Regions with significant populations
Hungary 9,967,921  (2001) [1]  Romania 1,431,807  (2002)  United States 1,398,724  (2000) [2]  Slovakia 520,528  (2001) [3]  Serbia 293,299  (2002) [4]  Israel 200,000 to 250,000 [2] Canada 267,255  (2001) [5] Eastern Europe 260,000 to 270,000 [2]  Russia 76,500  (2002)  Ukraine 156,600  (2001)  Germany 120,000  (2004) [6]  United Kingdom 80,135  (2001)  Croatia 16,595  (2001)  Slovenia 6,243  (2001)  Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,328  (2006) [7] South America 70,000 to 160,000 [2]  Brazil 150,000 [9] Australasia  (AUS / NZ) 62,000 [2]  Australia 40,583  (2001) [10] Asia 30,000  Turkey 6,800  (2001) [2] Africa 10,000
Language(s)
Hungarian
Religion(s)
54.5% Roman Catholics 19.4% Protestants (mainly Calvinist and Lutheran) 1 to 2% Jews 25.4% Unaffiliated, agnostic, atheist

Hungarians (Hungarian: magyarok) or Magyars are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 9.97 million Magyars in Hungary (2001).^[1] Magyars were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium. After the Treaty of Trianon Magyars have become minority inhabitants in the territory of present-day Romania (1,440,000; see: Hungarian minority in Romania), Slovakia (520,500), Serbia (293,000; largely in Vojvodina), Ukraine and Russia (170,000), Austria (40,583), Croatia (16,500), the Czech Republic (14,600) and Slovenia (10,000). Significant groups of people with Magyar ancestry live in various other parts of the world (e.g. 1,400,000 in the United States), but unlike the Magyars living within the former Kingdom of Hungary, only a minority of these preserve the Hungarian language and traditions. The Hungarians can be classified in several sub-groups according to local linguistic and cultural characteristics. Hungarian ethnic subgroups that have a distinct identity are the Székelys, Csángós, Jassic people and Palócs.

The word "Hungarian" is thought to be derived from the Bulgar-Turkic Onogur, possibly because the Magyars were neighbours (or confederates) of the Empire of the Onogurs in the sixth century, whose leading tribal union was called the "Onogurs" (meaning "ten tribes" in Old Turkic).

The "H-" prefix in many languages (Hungarians, Hongrois, Hungarus etc.) is a later addition. It was taken over from the name of the "Huns", a semi-nomadic tribe that briefly lived in the area of present-day Hungary and, according to legends originating in the medieval period, was the people from which the Magyars arose. The identification of the "Hungarians" with the "Huns" has often occurred in historiography and literature. Even today, Hun names like Attila and Réka are popular among Hungarians. This identification began to be disputed in the late nineteenth century, and is still a source of major controversy among scholars who insist that there could be no direct connection between the two.

The word Magyar in the Hungarian language refers both to the ethnicity and the language. In English and many other languages, however, "Magyar" is only used to refer to the ethnicity and is most common in certain contexts, for example, when distinguishing ethnic Hungarians (i.e. the Magyars) from the other nationalities living in the Kingdom of Hungary.

The origin of the Hungarians is partly disputed. The most widely accepted Finno-Ugric theory from the late nineteenth century is based primarily on linguistic and ethnographical arguments, while it is criticised by some as relying too much on linguistics. There are also other theories stating that the Magyars are descendants of Scythians, Huns, Avars, and/or Sumerians. These are primarily based on medieval legends, whose authenticity and scientific reliability is strongly questionable, as well as non-systematic linguistic similarities. Most scholars dismiss these claims as speculation.

The following section presents the Finno-Ugric theory of the origin of modern Hungarian people. For some other theories see Hungarian prehistory.

Finno-Ugric is a group of related languages, which does not necessarily mean that the peoples speaking those languages are equally related in terms of ethnicity. The same holds true for Indo-European languages.

Migration of the Magyars

During the fourth millennium BC, some of the earliest settlements of the Finno-Ugric-speaking peoples were situated east of the Ural Mountains, where they hunted and fished. From there, the Ugrians, settled in the wood-steppe parts of western Siberia (i.e. to the east of the Ural Mountains) from at least 2000 BC onwards. Their settlements closely resembled those of the north-western Andronovo Culture. More advanced tribes arriving from the southern steppes taught them how to farm, breed cattle and produce bronze objects. Around 1500 BC, they started to breed horses and horse riding became one of their typical activities.

Due to climatic changes in the early first millennium BC, the northern Ugrian subgroup (the Ob-Ugrians) moved to the lower Ob River, while southern Ugrians remained in the south and became nomadic herdsmen. Since these southern Ugrians became the ancestors of the proto-Magyars, this division marks the beginning of the Magyars as a distinct ethnic group. During the following centuries, the proto-Magyars continued to live in the wood-steppes and steppes southeast of the Ural Mountains, strongly influenced by their immediate neighbours, the ancient Sarmatians.

Main articles: Yugra, Magna Hungaria, and Levedia

In the fourth and fifth centuries AD, the proto-Magyars moved to the west of the Ural Mountains to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River known as Bashkiria (Bashkortostan).

Eastern Hemisphere, 600ad.

In the early eighth century, some of the proto-Magyars moved to the Don River to an area between the Volga, Don and the Seversky Donets rivers called Levedia. Meanwhile, the descendants of those proto-Magyars who stayed in Bashkiria remained there as late as 1241. As a consequence, earlier scholarship considered the Magyars and the Bashkirs as two branches of the same nation. The earlier Bashkirs, however, were decimated during the Mongol invasion of Europe (thirteenth century) and assimilated into Turkic peoples.

The proto-Magyars around the Don River were subordinates of the Khazar khaganate. Their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov Culture, i.e. Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians, descendants of the Onogurs) and the Alans, from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. The Bulgars and Magyars shared a long-lasting relationship in Khazaria, either by alliance or rivalry. The system of two rulers (later known as kende and gyula) is also thought to be a major inheritance from the Khazars. Tradition holds that the Magyars were organized in a confederacy of tribes called the Hét Magyar. The tribes of the Hétmagyar were; Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer (Magyar), Nyék, and Tarján. The confederacy was formed as a border defending allies of Khazaria mainly during the reign of Khagan Bulan and Ovadyah, with the Magyar tribe as ascendant.

Main article: Etelköz

Around 830, a civil war broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes out of the Khazars joined the Magyars and they moved to what the Magyars call the Etelköz, i.e. the territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River (today's Ukraine). Around 854, the Magyars had to face a first attack by the Pechenegs. (According to other sources, the reason for the departure of the Magyars to Etelköz was the attack of the Pechenegs.) Both the Kabars and earlier the Bulgars may have taught the Magyars their Turkic languages; according to the Finno-Ugric theory, this is used to account for at least three hundred Turkic words and names still in modern Hungarian. The new neighbours of the Magyars were the Vikings and the eastern Slavs. Archaeological findings suggest that the Magyars entered into intense interaction with both groups. From 862 onwards, the Magyars (already referred to as the Ungri) along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of looting raids from the Etelköz to the Carpathian Basin–mostly against the Eastern Frankish Empire (Germany) and Great Moravia, but also against the Balaton principality and Bulgaria.

Prince Árpád crossing the Carpathians. A detail from Árpád Feszty and his assistants' vast canvas (over 1800 m²), painted to celebrate the one-thousandth anniversary of the Magyar conquest of Hungary, now displayed at the Ópusztaszer National Memorial Site in Hungary.

The entry of the Magyars into the Carpathian basin, from the Chronicon Pictum, 1360.

In 895/896, probably under the leadership of Árpád, some Magyars crossed the Carpathians and entered the Carpathian Basin. The tribe called Magyars (Megyer) was the leading tribe of the Magyar alliance that conquered the center of the basin. At the same time (c.895), due to their involvement in the 894-896 Bulgaro-Byzantine war, Magyars in Etelköz were attacked by Bulgaria and then by their old enemies the Pechenegs. It is uncertain whether or not those conflicts were the cause of the Magyar departure from Etelköz.

In the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars initially occupied the Great Moravian territory at the upper/middle Tisza river, a scarcely populated territory, where, according to Arabian sources, Great Moravia used to send its criminals, and where the Roman Empire had settled the Iazyges centuries earlier. From there, they intensified their looting raids across continental Europe. In 900, they moved from the upper Tisza river to Transdanubia (Pannonia), which later became the core of the arising Hungarian state. Their allies, the Kabars (probably led by Kursan), appear to have settled in the region around Bihar.^{[citation needed]} Upon entering the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars found a mainly Slavic population there.^{[citation needed]}

Remnants of the Avars lived in the southwest and Romanians in the east and southeast, although the latter is a matter of controversy (see Origin of the Romanians). After the battle of Augsburg (956), the Magyars gradually changed their pastoral way of life to an agricultural one and borrowed hundreds of agricultural Slavic words. See History of Hungary for a continuation, and Hungary before the Magyars for the background.

Many of the Magyars, however, remained to the north of the Carpathians after 895/896, as archaeological findings suggest (e.g. Polish Przemysl). They seem to have joined the other Magyars in 900. There is also a consistent Hungarian population in Transylvania that is historically unrelated to the Magyars led by Árpád: the Székelys, 40% of the Hungarian minority in Romania. They are fully acknowledged as Magyars. The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy (see Székely for details).

The Magyar leader Árpád is believed to have led the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin in 896. In 907, the Magyars destroyed a Bavarian army at Pressburg and laid Germany, France and Italy open to Magyar raids. These raids were fast and devastating. The Magyars defeated Louis the Child's Imperial Army near Augsburg in 910. From 917-925, Magyars raided through Basle, Alsace, Burgundy, Saxony, and Provence. Magyar expansion was checked at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. Although the battle at Lechfeld stopped the Magyar raids against western Europe, the raids on the Balkan Peninsula continued until 970.^[11] Hungarian settlement in the area was approved by the Pope when their leaders accepted Christianity, and Stephen I the Saint (Szent István) was crowned King of Hungary in 1001. The century between the Magyars' arrival from the eastern European plains and the consolidation of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1001 was dominated by pillaging campaigns across Europe, from Dania (Denmark) to the Iberian peninsula (Spain).^[12]

Eastern Hemisphere, 1100ad.

At this time, the Hungarian nation numbered between 25,000^[13] and 1,000,000 people^[14]. The Slavic population in present-day Hungary were culturally assimilated by the Magyar culture.

The name "Hungarian" has also a wider meaning, as it once referred to all inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary irrespective of their ethnicity.^[15]

The first accurate measurements of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary including ethnic composition were carried out in 1850-51. There is a debate among Magyar and non-Magyar (especially Slovak and Romanian) historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure throughout history:

• Some historians, especially Hungarians, support the theory that the Magyars' percentage in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages, and began to decrease only at the time of the Ottoman conquest, reaching as low as around 39% (or 29% according to historians from outside Hungary) in the end of the eighteenth century. The decline of the Magyars was due to the constant wars, famines and plagues during the 150 years of Ottoman rule. The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Magyars, so the death toll among them was much higher than among other nationalities. In the 18th century their percentage declined further because of the influx of new settlers from Germany, Serbia, and other countries.

• Others, particularly Slovak and Romanian historians, tend to emphasise the multi-ethnic nature of the Kingdom even in the Middle Ages and argue that the drastic change in the ethnic structure hypothesized by Hungarian historians in fact did not occur. Therefore, the Magyars are supposed to have accounted only for about 30-40% of the Kingdom's population since its establishment. In particular, there is a fierce debate among Magyar and Romanian historians about the ethnic composition of Transylvania through the times; see Origin of the Romanians.

In the nineteenth century, the percentage of Magyars in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900 (see Magyarization). Spontaneous assimilation was an important factor, especially between the German and Jewish minorities and the citizens of the bigger towns. On the other hand, about 1,5 million people (of whom about two-thirds were non-Hungarian) left the Kingdom of Hungary between 1890-1910 to escape from poverty.^[16]

The years 1918 to 1920 were a turning point in the Magyars' history. By the Treaty of Trianon, the Kingdom had been cut into several parts, leaving only a quarter of its original size. One third of the Magyars became minorities in the neighbouring countries. During the remainder of the twentieth century, the Magyar population of Hungary grew from 7,1 million (1920) to around 10,4 million (1980), in spite of losses during the Second World War and the wave of emigration after the attempted revolution in 1956. The number of Hungarians in the neighbouring countries mostly remained the same or slightly decreased, mostly due to assimilation (sometimes forced; see Slovakization and Romanianization) and emigration to Hungary (in the 1990s, especially from Transylvania and Vojvodina).

After the "baby boom" of the 1960s, a serious demographic crisis began to develop in Hungary and its neighbours. The Magyar population reached its greatest in 1980, after which it began to decline. This is expected to continue at least until 2050, when the population would number around seven to eight million.^{[citation needed]}

Today, the Magyars represent around 35% of the population of the Carpathian Basin. Their number is around twelve to thirteen million (2006), almost the same as in 1910. While other ethnic groups increased their numbers two, three or even more times during the twentieth century, the Magyar population stagnated. Between 1950 and 2000, the increase in Hungary's population was the third slowest in the world, after Bulgaria and St. Kitts and Nevis: 8.6% (from 9,338,000 to 10,137,000).

There was a referendum in Hungary in December 2004 on whether to grant Hungarian citizenship to Magyars living outside Hungary's borders (i.e. without requiring a permanent residence in Hungary). The referendum failed due to the insufficient voter turnout.

An embossed stone in the Ópusztaszer National Memorial Park showing a worldwide Hungarian population count.

Besides the various peoples mentioned above, the Magyars assimilated or were influenced by subsequent peoples arriving in the Carpathian Basin. Among these are the Cumanians, Pechenegs, Jazones, Germans and other Western European settlers in the Middle Ages. Romanians and Slovaks have lived together and blended with Magyars since early medieval times. Turks, who occupied the central part of present-day Hungary from c.1541 until c.1699, inevitably exerted an influence, as did the various nations (Germans, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats and others) that resettled depopulated territories after their departure. The advanced economic and political conditions of the Slavs, who had preceded the Magyars' arrival but continued to migrate thereafter, exerted a significant influence; several Hungarian words relating to agriculture, politics, religion and handicrafts were borrowed from Slavic languages. Both Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) minorities have been living in Hungary since the Middle Ages.

Magyars in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1911	Migrations of the Székely Hungarians	Hungarians in Romania	Hungarians in Harghita, Covasna, and Mureş counties of Romania (2002 data)
Hungarians in Vojvodina, Serbia	Csárdás folk dance in Skorenovac, Vojvodina, Serbia	A Székely village in Covasna County, Romania	Regions where Hungarian is spoken

• Origins of the Hungarians from the Enciklopédia Humana (with many maps and pictures)
• An overview of all the various theories
• On the origins of the Hungarians by Marcell Jankovics
• Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin
• Hungary and the Council of Europe
• Facts about Hungary
• Hungarians outside Hungary - Map

Genetic studies

• MtDNA and Y chromosome polymorphisms in Hungary: inferences from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Uralic influences on the modern Hungarian gene pool

• Probable ancestors of Hungarian ethnic groups: an admixture analysis

• Human Chromosomal Polymorphism in a Hungarian Sample