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1. Political commitment to evidence-based youth policy

2. Cooperation between policy-making and research

3. National statistics and available data sources

4. Budgetary allocations supporting research in the youth field

Political commitment to evidence-based youth policy

The main channel of research informing youth policy is large-scale youth research, which has been conducted every four years since 2000. In each cycle, the youth research is conducted in relation to 15-29 year olds on a representative sample of 8 000 people. Since 2009, the implementation of the research has been regulated by the National Youth Strategy (Nemzeti Ifjúsági Stratégia). In the framework of the EU project of the National Youth Council (EU Youth Dialogue) there are important research results which are incorporated into the decision making processes. According to information provided by the ministry in 2024, a research on youth workers is to be expected in 2024 (see sub-chapter 10.4).

Cooperation between policy-making and research

Institutionalized mechanisms and actors

As noted, there are no institutionalized mechanisms of channelling youth research to policy making, but the role of large scale youth research is central here.

Research related to youth policy was carried out in the National Institute for Family, Youth and Population Policy. Due to the restructuring of background institutions in 2016, these professional functions were assigned to the Ministry of Human Capacities, which in the end of 2017 founded the Maria Kopp Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS). From 2022, the responsible body for the professional management of the KINCS is the Deputy State Secretariat for Family Affairs in the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (Kulturális és Innovációs Minisztérium). Research management belongs also to the State Secretariat in cooperation with KINCS, regarding the following topics:

• developing the family and population policy of the government,
• developing the tools for family and population policy and the system of family benefits,
• coordinating the tasks related to the cooperation among generations,
• coordinating the tasks related to family social and health programmes, and
• coordinating the tasks related to the equality of men and women.

Informal/ ad-hoc cooperation

Apart from the youth researches that take place in every four years (for detailed information see sub-chapter 1.3. National Youth Strategy), there is no regular research, only ad hoc cooperation and secondary analyses. The main strategic documents contain an overview with data, on which the priorities are based. However, in the latest action plan of National Youth Strategy for 2016-2017, there is no any reference to data.

Evidence-based evaluation of youth policies

As several youth programmes are financed by EU funds with a formal obligation to carry out relevant monitoring activities, a relatively large number of empirical data sources can be reached. In addition, market researchers also deal with youth-related issues from time to time. Significant examples are studies on Internet use and its dangers and the study of migration intention and potential, but the results of these surveys have not been officially mentioned in government documents.

Monitoring of the specific projects funded by the government is done regularly through the Electronic Tender Administration and Cooperation System (EPER). Evaluation and reporting on these tenders is done using data provided through the system. The evaluation of smaller projects can vary. The evaluation of the Petőfi Sándor programme mentioned earlier is a publication that consists of reports of the participants.

National statistics and available data sources

The existence of national youth statistics

The Hungarian Central Statistical Office (referred hereinafter to as HCSO) collects statistics on youth. Besides the basic demographic data, detailed age-specific information is available for education, income, culture and info-communication. The HCSO regularly publishes about youth employment as part of the general labour market overview, the most recent publication refers to the second quarter of 2023.

According to the latest HCSO data from 2023, the employment rate of 15-24 year old young people was about 26% in the second quarter of 2023 and it has slightly decreased compared to 2022. In the last quarter of 2023, the unemployment rate of 15-24 year olds was 14.7% (it was 12.8% in average, in 2023).

Specific youth indicators

In addition to the above, the HCSO regularly collects data on aspects of education (mainly the numbers of students in the different levels of education, but budgetary data is also published), farming (young farmers are defined as those under the age of 40), and there is one specific indicator regarding books published in youth and children's literature.

National youth report

No general youth reports published by the HCSO, but specific reports and publications often analyse the topics of family and population, and labour market, where the situation of young people is described. Besides that, the analyses connected to the regular large sample youth researches also present statistical data.

Large-sample youth research

The National Youth Strategy calls for conducting large sample youth research every four years. The most recent study, Hungarian Youth 2020 (Magyar Fiatalok 2020), representative of 15-29 year olds living in Hungary and ethnic Hungarian youth of the neighbouring countries, was conducted in 2020. A flash report, an edited volume of studies and a secondary analysis have already been published from the results. One of the studies, published in 2020, is about volunteering, international mobility, climate change themes and political activity of youth. (Székely, 2020)

Other data and analyses

As mentioned previously, ad hoc research focusing on certain policy fields or topics under the ministry are frequent. A detailed analysis on the situation of young people on the labour market was published in 2020.

Currently the most important actor carrying out youth research is the Youth Research Institute of the Mathias Corvinus College. They made secondary analysis of the 2020 large sample youth research and they carried out two survey researches of young people between the ages of 15 and 39 in 2022-23. Its results were published in 2023.

Budgetary allocations supporting research in the youth field

There is no separate, allocated budget line for youth research. The large-scale researches before 2020 were financed through the budget (using EU-funds) allocated to the New Generation Centre.