Hungary’s New Plan to Combat the Depopulation Disaster

Leftists look down on the supposedly unwashed masses and see climate Armageddon, but conservatives rightly fear that we’re not having enough babies to take care of our growing elderly population. Hungary is facing the real threat head on with a new family policy aimed at preventing demographic winter.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced Friday that the central European country’s government approved a measure providing income tax exemptions for mothers. Orbán said the measure aims to increase the number of births in Hungary, and also to ensure that mothers would not become worse off than women who chose not to have children.

Hungarian mothers who have one child will not have to pay personal income tax until age 30, while those with two or more children will be exempt from personal income taxes for life. Women with four children or more were already exempt from income taxes.

Hungary charges a 15% personal income tax, and married couples cannot file jointly, according to Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX and a key adviser to President Donald Trump, praised the policy as a “good idea” on his platform X.

If the policy succeeds, it may have ramifications far outside of Hungary.

Countries across the West have experienced declining birth rates, and even non-Western countries are having fewer babies as they embrace the expanding prosperity of the global market system.

According to the European Commission, the overall fertility rate for the European Union stood at 1.38 live births per woman in 2023, ranging from 1.06 in Malta to 1.81 in Bulgaria. Due to the fact that not every child will grow up to have children of his or her own, demographers estimate that a fertility rate of 2.1 is necessary for a country to replace its own population.

The U.S. fertility rate has plummeted in recent decades, remaining below replacement for the past 50 years, with one brief exception in the years 2006 and 2007, according to a recent Heritage Foundation report. Americans consistently say they want more children than they have, according to another recent Heritage report.

This isn’t just a problem for daycares and schools, but for the society as a whole. A sustained declining birthrate not only deprives a country of the natural joy that children bring, but it also creates a massive economic problem. As the elderly retire and exit the workforce, younger generations aren’t large enough to replace them. Some countries may escape this demographic crisis for a time by importing immigrants from other countries, but the declining fertility trend has gone global.

The elderly don’t just retire. As they age, they need attention and care, and a declining younger workforce won’t be able to keep up with the demand.

Due to immigration, the United States has been able to stave off the worst of demographic collapse for now, but even America has an increasingly elderly population.

Hungary’s tax incentives may encourage more Hungarians to have more babies, thus reversing these declines.

The central European country has already given some reason for hope. After a sharp decline down to 1.295 live births per woman in 2003, the country’s fertility rate has increased modestly to 1.555 in 2025, according to United Nations projections. In 2019, Hungary began offering married couples a 10 million Forint ($27,390 USD) loan, which families would not have to pay back if they have three children.

Orbán’s Fidesz Party has been in power since 2010, presiding over the increasing birth rate.

Of course, the true root of declining birth rates is likely spiritual, not economic. The income tax exemptions may also carry negative consequences for Hungary’s treasury, imposing costs which the country may have to balance with other policies.

That said, economic incentives can impact behavior, and Hungary’s pro-family policies appear to have some effect. These moves do not represent a panacea, but they may help reverse the demographic crisis. At the very least, they represent a serious attempt to combat an increasingly global threat.

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