|ref23 = {{lower|}}
|region24 = {{AUS}}
|pop24 = 67,616 {{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}
|ref24 =
|region25 = {{NZL}}
|pop25 = 1,476
|ref25 =
|region26 = Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

|pop26 = c. 10,000
|ref26 =
|region27 = {{THA}}
|pop27 = 3,029
|ref27 =
|region28 = {{PHL}}
|pop28 = 1,114
|ref28 =
|region29 = Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

|pop29 = 10,000
|ref29 = {{lower|}}
|languages = Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

|religions =
{{{!}} align="center" style="background:transparent; text-align:left;"
{{!}}style="width:30em;"{{!}} Predominantly Roman Catholic

Roman Catholicism in Hungary

The Roman Catholic Church in Hungary is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome....

, Protestant {{smaller|(primarily Reformed

Reformed Church in Hungary

The Reformed Church in Hungary is a key representative of Christianity in Hungary, being numerically the second-largest denomination in Hungary after the Roman Catholic Church, and the biggest denomination among ethnic Hungarians in Romania...

 and Lutheran

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

; also Unitarian

Unitarian Church of Transylvania

The Unitarian Church of Transylvania is a church of the Unitarian denomination, based in the city of Cluj in the Principality of Transylvania, present day in Romania...

)}}, but also including Greek Catholic

Hungarian Greek Catholic Church

The Hungarian Greek Catholic Church is a Byzantine Rite sui juris particular Church in full union with the Catholic Church that uses Hungarian in the liturgy.-History:...

, Jewish and Unaffiliated

Irreligion

Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...

.
{{!}}}
|related=
}}
Hungarians, also known as Magyars , are a nation

Nation

A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...

 and an ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

 native to and primarily associated with Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. There are around 14-15 million Hungarians, of whom 10 million live in today's Hungary (as of 2001). About 2.5 million Hungarians live in areas that belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 before the 1920 Treaty of Trianon

Treaty of Trianon

The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...

, but are now parts of Hungary's seven neighbour countries, especially Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

, Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

 and Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. Significant groups

Hungarian diaspora

Hungarian diaspora is a term that encompasses the total ethnic Hungarian population located outside of current-day Hungary.There are two main groups of the diaspora...

 of people with Hungarian ancestry live in various other parts of the world, most of them in the United States

Hungarian American

Hungarian Americans Hungarian are American citizens of Hungarian descent. The constant influx of Hungarian immigrants was marked by several waves of sharp increase.-History:...

, Brazil

Hungarian Brazilian

Hungarian Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Hungarian ancestry, or a Hungarian-born person residing in Brazil....

, Argentina

Hungarians in Argentina

The first Hungarians who came to Argentina were Jesuits in the 18th century. Most Hungarian immigrants to Argentina came in the first part of the 20th century and after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Today, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 people of Hungarian descent living in Argentina,...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Unlike the Hungarians living within the territory of pre-1920 Hungary, only some of the ethnic Hungarians in other areas 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 with distinct identity are the Székely

Székely

The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...

, the Csángó

Csángó

The Csango people are a Hungarian ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia, especially in the Bacău County...

, the Palóc

Palóc

The Palóc are a subgroup of the Magyars in Northern Hungary. While Palócs have retained distinctive traditions, including a very apparent dialect of Hungarian, Palócs are also ethnic Hungarians by general consensus....

 and the Jassic people

Jassic people

The Jassic people or Jász are an ethnic group of Hungarians who mostly live in the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county of the Republic of Hungary. They are of Ossetic origin and originally spoke the Jassic dialect of the Ossetic language...

.

Name

{{see|Name of Hungary}}
The exonym "Hungarian" is thought to be derived from the Bulgar-Turkic On-Ogur

Onogurs

The Onogurs, also known as Utigurs, were a horde of equestrian nomads in the North Eurasian steppe east of the Don River during the 5th to 8th centuries. The Onogurs crossed the Volga and entered into Europe around the year 460 within the larger context of the Great Migrations and the Turkic...

(meaning "ten" Ogurs), which was the name of the Utigur

Utigur

Utigur is the name used by Procopius Caesariensis and his continuators Agathias and Menander in the 5th and 6th centuries to refer to the Bulgar-Huns of Onoguria, the Eurasian steppes north-east of the Black Sea and east the Don river....

 Bulgar

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

 tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars

Eurasian Avars

The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...

, and prior to the arrival of Magyars. The Hungarians must have belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is quite possible they became its ethnic majority. In the Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

 the Hungarians had many different names as "Ungar" or "Hungarus".

The Hungarian people refer to themselves by the denomination "Magyar", instead of the term "Hungarian", which is used by foreigners.

The "H-" prefix is an addition in Middle Latin. The medieval Kingdom of Hungary was known in Latin as either Regnum Hungariae or as Regnum Ungariae.

The Hungarian endonym is Magyar. There are several theories about the origin and meaning of the word "Magyar."{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}

Ethnic affiliations and genetic origins

{{Main|Hungarian prehistory}}
{{Expert-subject|date:May 2011|date=September 2011}}
The linguistic heritage of the Hungarians comes from Finno-Ugric peoples

Finno-Ugric peoples

The Finno-Ugric peoples are any of several peoples of Europe who speak languages of the proposed Finno-Ugric language family, such as the Finns, Estonians, Mordvins, and Hungarians...

. A branch of Uralic speakers migrated from their original homeland near the Ural mountains

Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...

 and settled in various places in eastern Europe, until they conquered the present-day area of Hungary between the 9th and 10th centuries. Genetically, the present-day Hungarian population preserves much of an older European genetic makeup. In the middle ages, according to genetic and palaeoanthropological studies, the majority of Hungarians showed features of European biological descent.

Pre-fourth century AD

During the fourth millennium BC, the Uralic

Uralic languages

The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...

-speaking peoples who were living in the central and southern regions of the Urals

Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...

 split up. Some dispersed towards the west and northwest and came into contact with Iranian speakers who were spreading northwards. From at least 2000 BC onwards, the Ugrian speakers became distinguished from the rest of the Uralic community. Judging by evidence from burial mounds and settlement sites, they interacted with the Andronovo Culture

Andronovo culture

The Andronovo culture, is a collection of similar local Bronze Age cultures that flourished ca. 21200–1400 BCE in western Siberia and the west Asiatic steppe. It is probably better termed an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon...

, furthermore, type of Hungarians of the Conquest period shows related features to that of Andronovo people.

Fourth century to c.830 AD

In the fourth and 5th centuries AD, the Magyars moved to the west of the Ural Mountains to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River

Volga River

The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...

 known as Bashkiria (Bashkortostan

Bashkortostan

The Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...

) and Perm Krai

Perm Krai

Perm Krai is a federal subject of Russia that came into existence on December 1, 2005 as a result of the 2004 referendum on the merger of Perm Oblast and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug. The city of Perm became the administrative center of the new federal subject...

.

In the early 8th century, some of the Magyars moved to the Don River to an area between the Volga, Don and the Seversky Donets

Seversky Donets

Seversky Donets is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine and then again through Russia to join the Don River, about from the Sea of Azov...

 rivers. Meanwhile, the descendants of those Magyars who stayed in Bashkiria remained there as late as 1241.

The Magyars around the Don River were subordinates of the Khazar

Khazars

The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...

 khagan

Khagan

Khagan or qagan , alternatively spelled kagan, khaghan, qaghan, or chagan, is a title of imperial rank in the Mongolian and Turkic languages equal to the status of emperor and someone who rules a khaganate...

ate. Their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov Culture, i.e. Bulgars

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

 (Proto-Bulgarians, Onogurs

Onogurs

The Onogurs, also known as Utigurs, were a horde of equestrian nomads in the North Eurasian steppe east of the Don River during the 5th to 8th centuries. The Onogurs crossed the Volga and entered into Europe around the year 460 within the larger context of the Great Migrations and the Turkic...

) and the Alans

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

, from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. Tradition holds that the Magyars were organized in a confederacy of tribes called hétmagyar

Magyar tribes

The Magyar tribes were the fundamental political units whose framework the Hungarians lived within, until these clans from Asia, more accurately from the region of Ural Mountains, invaded the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.The locality in which the Hungarians, the...

(lit. seven Hungarians). The tribes of the hétmagyar were; Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer, Nyék, and Tarján.

c.830 to c.895

Around 830, a civil war broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar

Kabar

The Khavars or erroneously Kabars were Khazarians, therefore Turkic people who joined to the Magyars  in the 8th century.- History :...

 tribes of the Khazars joined the Magyars and they moved to what the Magyars call the Etelköz, i.e. the territory between the Carpathians

Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...

 and the Dnieper River

Dnieper River

The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...

 (today's Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

){{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}. Around 854, the Magyars faced 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

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

 may have taught the Magyars their Turkic languages

Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...

. The new neighbours of the Magyars were the Varangians

Varangians

The Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were people from the Baltic region, most often associated with Vikings, who from the 9th to 11th centuries ventured eastwards and southwards along the rivers of Eastern Europe, through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.According...

 and the eastern Slavs. 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

Great Moravia

Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...

, but also against the Balaton principality

Balaton Principality

The Principality of Lower Pannonia was a Slavic principality located in the western part of the Pannonian plain, between the rivers Danube to its east The Principality of Lower Pannonia (also called Pannonia, Lower Pannonia, Pannonian Principality, Transdanubian Principality, Slavic Pannonian...

 and Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

.

Entering the Carpathian Basin (after 895)

{{Main|History of Hungary|Pannonian basin before Hungary|Hungarian prehistory|Pannonia|Székely}}



In 895/896, under the leadership of Árpád

Árpád

Árpád was the second Grand Prince of the Hungarians . Under his rule the Hungarian people settled in the Carpathian basin. The dynasty descending from him ruled the Hungarian tribes and later the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301...

, some Hungarians crossed the Carpathians

Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...

 and entered the Carpathian Basin. The tribe called Megyer was the leading tribe of the Hungarian alliance that conquered the centre of the basin. At the same time (c.895), due to their involvement in the 894–896 Bulgaro-Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 war, Magyars in Etelköz were attacked by Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 and then by their old enemies the Pechenegs. The Bulgarians

Bulgarians

The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...

 won the decisive battle of Southern Buh

Battle of Southern Buh

The Battle of Southern Buh occurred near the banks of the so called river, in modern Ukraine. The result was a great Bulgarian victory which forced the Magyars to leave forever the steppes of southern Ukraine and to establish the Kingdom of Hungary a hundred years later.- Origins of the conflict...

. It is uncertain whether or not those conflicts were the cause of the Hungarian departure from Etelköz.

From the upper Tisza

Tisza

The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...

 region of the Carpathian Basin, the Hungarians intensified their looting raids across continental Europe. In 900, they moved from the upper Tisza river to Transdanubia (Pannonia

Pannonia

Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....

){{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}, which later became the core of the arising Hungarian state. At the time of the Hungarian migration, the land was inhabited only by a sparse population of Slavs, numbering about 200,000, who were either assimilated or enslaved by the Hungarians.

After the battle of Augsburg (955), the Hungarians stopped their raids against Western Europe.

Many of the Hungarians, however, remained to the north of the Carpathians after 895/896, as archaeological findings suggest (e.g. Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 Przemyśl

Przemysl

Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....

). They seem to have joined the other Hungarians in 900. There is also a consistent Hungarian population in Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, the Székely

Székely

The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...

s, comprise 40% of the Hungarians in Romania

Hungarians in Romania

The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census....

. The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy.

History after 900

Medieval Hungary controlled more territory than medieval France, and the population of medieval Hungary was the third largest of any country in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.
The Hungarian leader Árpád

Árpád

Árpád was the second Grand Prince of the Hungarians . Under his rule the Hungarian people settled in the Carpathian basin. The dynasty descending from him ruled the Hungarian tribes and later the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301...

 is believed to have led the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin in 896. In 907, the Hungarians destroyed a Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n army in the Battle of Pressburg and laid the territories of present-day Germany, France and Italy open to Hungarian raids. These raids were fast and devastating. The Hungarians defeated Louis the Child

Louis the Child

Louis the Child , sometimes called Louis IV or Louis III, was the last Carolingian ruler of East Francia....

's Imperial Army near Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

 in 910. From 917 to 925, Hungarians raided through Basle, Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

, Burgundy, Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, and Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

. Magyar expansion was checked at the Battle of Lechfeld

Battle of Lechfeld

The Battle of Lechfeld , often seen as the defining event for holding off the incursions of the Hungarians into Western Europe, was a decisive victory by Otto I the Great, King of the Germans, over the Hungarian leaders, the harka Bulcsú and the chieftains Lél and Súr...

 in 955. Although the battle at Lechfeld stopped the Hungarian raids against Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

, the raids on the Balkan Peninsula continued until 970. Hungarian settlement in the area was approved by the Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

 when their leaders accepted Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, 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

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 in 1001 was dominated by pillaging campaigns across Europe, from Dania (Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

) to the Iberian Peninsula

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

 (modern Spain and Portugal). After the country's acceptance into Christian Europe under Stephen I, Hungary served as a bulwark against further invasions from the east and south, especially against the Turks.

At this time, the Hungarian nation numbered between 25,000 and 1,000,000 people.

The name "Hungarian" has also a wider meaning, as it once referred to all inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 irrespective of their ethnicity.

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 Hungarian and non-Hungarian (especially Slovak and Romanian

Romanians

The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....

) historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure throughout history.

Some historians support the theory that the Magyars' proportion in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 – non Magyars numbered hardly more than 20% to 25% of the total population and began to decrease only at the time of the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 conquest, – reaching as low as around 39% in the end of the 18th century. The decline of the Magyars was due to the constant wars, Ottoman raids, 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 attrited them at a much higher rate than among other nationalities. In the 18th century their proportion declined further because of the influx of new settlers from Europe, especially Slovaks

Slovaks

The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...

, Serbs

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

, Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

, and Germans

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

. Droves of Romanians entered Transylvania during the same period. As a consequence of the Turkish occupation and the Habsburg colonization policies, the country underwent a great change in ethnic composition. Hungary's population more than tripled to 8 million between 1720 and 1787, however, only 39% of its people were Magyars, who lived primarily in the centre of the country.

Other historians, particularly Slovak and Romanian ones, tend to 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%{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} 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

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

 through the times; see Origin of the Romanians.

In the 19th century, the proportion of Magyars in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900, mostly because of Magyarization. Spontaneous assimilation was an important factor, especially among 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

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 between 1890–1910 to escape from poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

.

The years 1918 to 1920 were a turning point in the Magyars' history. By the Treaty of Trianon

Treaty of Trianon

The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...

, 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 20th century, the Magyar population of Hungary grew from 7.1 million (1920) to around 10.4 million (1980), despite losses during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and the wave of emigration after the attempted revolution in 1956. The number of Hungarians in the neighbouring countries tended to remain the same or slightly decreased, mostly due to assimilation (sometimes forced; see Slovakization

Slovakization

Slovakization or Slovakisation is a term used to describe a cultural change in which ethnically non-Slovak people are made to become Slovak. The process can be named as 'accelerated assimilation'....

 and Romanianization

Romanianization

Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...

) and emigration to Hungary (in the 1990s, especially from Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

 and Vojvodina

Vojvodina

Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...

).

After the "baby boom" of the 1950s

Post-World War II baby boom

The end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, especially Western ones. There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but it is most often agreed to begin in the years immediately after the war, ending more than a decade later;...

 (Ratkó era), a serious demographic crisis began to develop in Hungary and its neighbours. The Magyar population reached its maximum in 1980, after which it began to decline. This decline is expected to continue at least until 2050, at which time the population will probably be between 8 and 9 million.

Today, the Magyars represent around 35% of the population of the Carpathian Basin. Their number is around 12–13 million. While other ethnic groups increased their numbers two, three or even more times during the 20th century, the Magyar population stagnated. Between 1950 and 1980, the increase in Hungary's population was the fourth-slowest in the world, after East Germany, Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 and St. Kitts and Nevis: 16.4% (from 9,204,799 to 10,709,463).

For historical reasons (see Treaty of Trianon

Treaty of Trianon

The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...

), significant Hungarian minority populations can be found in the surrounding countries, most of them in Romania (in Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

), Slovakia

Hungarians in Slovakia

Hungarians in Slovakia are the largest ethnic minority of the country, numbering 520,528 people or 9.7% of population . They are concentrated mostly in the southern part of the country, near the border with Hungary...

, Serbia

Hungarians in Vojvodina

Hungarians are the second largest ethnic group in the Vojvodina province in northern Serbia. According to the 2002 census, there are 290,207 ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina who compose 14.28% of the provincial population. The number of ethnic Hungarians in the whole of Serbia is 293,299, and their...

 (in Vojvodina

Vojvodina

Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...

). Sizable minorities live also in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 (in Transcarpathia

Carpathian Ruthenia

Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...

), Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 (primarily Slavonia

Slavonia

Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...

) and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 (in Burgenland

Burgenland

Burgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...

). Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

 is also host to a number of ethnic Hungarians, and Hungarian language has an official status in parts of the Prekmurje

Prekmurje

Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...

 region. Today, more than two million ethnic Hungarians live in nearby countries.

There was a referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 in Hungary in December 2004 on whether to grant Hungarian citizenship

Citizenship

Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...

 to Magyars living outside Hungary's borders (i.e. without requiring a permanent residence in Hungary). The referendum failed due to insufficient voter turnout

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

. Hungarian citizenship was given to Magyars living outside the borders in 2010 by the new government after the elections held in spring.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

Later influences

Besides the various peoples mentioned above, the Magyars assimilated or were influenced by subsequent peoples arriving in the Carpathian Basin. Among these are the Cumans

Cumans

The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...

, Pechenegs, Jazones

Jassic people

The Jassic people or Jász are an ethnic group of Hungarians who mostly live in the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county of the Republic of Hungary. They are of Ossetic origin and originally spoke the Jassic dialect of the Ossetic language...

, Germans and other Western European settlers in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. Vlachs

Vlachs

Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...

 (Romanians

Romanians

The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....

) and Slavs have lived together and blended with Magyars since early medieval times. Ottomans

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, who occupied the central part of Hungary from c.1526 until c.1699, inevitably exerted an influence, as did the various nations (Germans

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

, Slovaks

Slovaks

The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...

, Serbs

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

, Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 and others) that resettled depopulated territories after their departure. Similar to other European countries, Jewish

History of the Jews in Hungary

Hungarian Jews have existed since at least the 11th century. After struggling against discrimination throughout the Middle Ages, by the early 20th century the community grew to be 5% of Hungary's population , and were prominent in science, the arts and business...

, Armenians

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

, and Roma (Gypsy) minorities have been living in Hungary since the Middle Ages.

See also

{{columns |width=230px
|col1 =

• Csángó
  Csángó
  The Csango people are a Hungarian ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia, especially in the Bacău County...
  
  
• Finns
• Hungarian animals
  Hungarian animals
  The Hungarian breeds of domestic animals are often seen as national symbols in Hungary. Local national parks serve as "gene banks" to ensure their survival....
  
  
• Hungarian diaspora
  Hungarian diaspora
  Hungarian diaspora is a term that encompasses the total ethnic Hungarian population located outside of current-day Hungary.There are two main groups of the diaspora...
  
  
• Hungarian minority in Romania
• Hungarian mythology
  Hungarian mythology
  Hungarian mythology includes the myths, legends, folk tales, fairy tales and gods of the Hungarians. Many parts of it are thought to be lost, i.e. only some texts remained which can be classified as a myth. However, a significant amount of Hungarian mythology was successfully recovered in the last...
  
  

|col2width=170px
|col2 =

• Hungarians in Slovakia
  Hungarians in Slovakia
  Hungarians in Slovakia are the largest ethnic minority of the country, numbering 520,528 people or 9.7% of population . They are concentrated mostly in the southern part of the country, near the border with Hungary...
  
  
• Hungarians in Vojvodina
  Hungarians in Vojvodina
  Hungarians are the second largest ethnic group in the Vojvodina province in northern Serbia. According to the 2002 census, there are 290,207 ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina who compose 14.28% of the provincial population. The number of ethnic Hungarians in the whole of Serbia is 293,299, and their...
  
  
• Jassic people
  Jassic people
  The Jassic people or Jász are an ethnic group of Hungarians who mostly live in the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county of the Republic of Hungary. They are of Ossetic origin and originally spoke the Jassic dialect of the Ossetic language...
  
  
• Kabar
  Kabar
  The Khavars or erroneously Kabars were Khazarians, therefore Turkic people who joined to the Magyars  in the 8th century.- History :...
  
  
• Kunság
  Kunság
  Kunság is a historical and geographical region in Hungary situated in the current Bács-Kiskun and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok counties. Like other historical European regions called Cumania, it is named for the Cumans, a nomadic tribe of pagan Kipchaks that settled the area...
  
  
• List of Hungarians

|col3 =

• List of people of Hungarian origin
• Magyarab people
• Pole, Hungarian, two good friends
  Pole, Hungarian, two good friends
  "Pole and Hungarian cousins be" and "Pole and Hungarian, two good friends" are respective forms of a popular bilingual proverb concerning the historic friendship between the Polish and Hungarian peoples....
  
  
• Shamanistic remnants in Hungarian folklore
  Shamanistic remnants in Hungarian folklore
  Comparative methods used in analysing ethnographic data of Hungarian folktales, and some historical sources reveal that some features of Hungarian folklore are remnants of shamanistic beliefs, maintained from the deep past, or possibly borrowed from Turkic peoples with whom Hungarians used to live...
  
  
• Székely
  Székely
  The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
  
  
• Székelys of Bukovina
  Székelys of Bukovina
  The Székelys of Bukovina are a small Hungarian ethnic community with a complex history. They live today in the Tolna and Baranya counties of Hungary, in Hunedoara County in Romania and in the Serbian province of Vojvodina.-Origins:...
  
  

|col4 =

• Ural–Altaic languages
• Eastern Magyars

}}

External links

• Origins of the Hungarians from the Enciklopédia Humana (with many maps and pictures)
• 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
• Hungarian genetics researches 2008-2009 (in Hungarian)

{{Hungarian diaspora}}
{{Uralic peoples}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hungarian People}}