As you probably noticed by now, May 2019 is dedicated to the topic of social mapping in different countries from the Danube region. So, please find updated news from Hungary.

Hungary unfortunately has a long history with aging, being the first country in the world to enter the phase of demographic decrease in 1981. Since then, the general trend of demographic processes did not change. Birth rates shrunk and consequently, the elderly outnumbered the children under the age of 15 in 2005. While in 2016, 1,4 million children lived under the age of 15, while the number of elderlies reached 1,8 million. Meanwhile, compared to 2011, the number of active people decreased as well to 6,6 million. Therefore, the number of elderlies constantly grows. The growth rate is well above the EU average in the years between 2007-2017 (EU: 2,4% compare to 2,8% in Hungary). Besides, the old-age dependency ratio increases constantly as well, in 2018 reached 28,5%. This means that slightly more than 3 economically active person comes to 1 retired elderly. The ratio of aging index is 130,2% in 2018, which describes the proportion of elderly compared to the children under 15 years old. This ratio growths on an average with 2% annually. Aging is a dominant process in Hungary, their share might reach 29% by 2070. The number of old (above 80) is significantly growing as well. This also signals that the life expectancy in the age of 65 reached approximately 15 in the case of males, and 18,5 in the case of females. Another important fact is that 35% of the people above 65 years live alone. Among females this is an even more relevant issue. Many of them are faced with depression, 25% of those above 80, which is directly linked to the fact that a big proportion of them live alone. Therefore, caring for an aging population is an essential social need in the country.

Entrepreneurship might come up with solutions for tackling aging of the population and increasing professional caregiving. However, it is important to note that the number of children decreases each year, which directly affects the number of active populations in long term. Therefore, less people will be present on the market as economically active. With the decrease of children and working age population, we lose potential entrepreneurs. Besides, the economic and financial gap between Hungary and Western Europe means a significant pull factor for young people to move abroad for work. This means an additional loss for potential innovative capacity. Especially if it is considered, that those with best middle school results tend to seek for universities abroad, and their knowledge gathered is rarely implemented in Hungary, but rather in the country where they carried out their higher education. According to news (no scientific reports available) every 4th Hungarian student thinks of studying in a foreign university. Top lists are including UK, USA, Germany and Austria. An interesting fact is that the share of Hungarians in the top 50 UK universities is the third biggest in Central European EU member states after Romania and Poland. Which signals that we are a significant sending country as well. The flee of these young minds to Western Europe has impact on the innovation potential, although hard to define with qualitative measures.

Several different strategies can be distinguished to meet this social need through entrepreneurship. First, enterprises with their innovative potential can work on finding solutions for increasing problems related to caregiving, aging and other social services. This might include the implementation of innovative solutions for daily caregiving, e-health or m-health, home-based care. It is also important to mention elderly-friendly mobility, innovative solutions for sensory impairment. Second, enterprises can co-finance pilot projects (regardless whether governmental or NGO driven) in forms of Corporate Social Responsibility activity, fundraising, direct sponsorship. Third, entrepreneurship could be promoted among seniors to tackle challenges related to unemployment and sudden loss of daily routine when retired, could be done as a part time job. Which could contribute to the maintaining of mental health, feeling of having a purpose and things to do. Finally, participation of enterprises in local, regional, national level consultations, roundtable meetings and workshops to identify possible solutions for the problems related to aging and caregiving.