Families raising children today will be key to “ensuring pensions for future generations” János Csák, the culture and innovation minister, said in an interview to public radio. “Certain countries are seeing the birth rate fall, while in others, especially in Africa, the population is growing rapidly, presenting a challenge to every country,” he said. Hungary’s government has been working to turn demographic trends to prevent a “population exchange”, a possible development of those trends, he said. The government has introduced several measures in support of housing families from home purchase subsidies to interest subsidies. It intends to continue this support while taking market trends into account, he said. It is also working to ensure mothers “are given a real opportunity to decide between work or staying at home” thanks to a programme to build creches and financial support, he said. As a result of the measures, Hungary’s fertility rate was up at 1.59. After the pandemic, it suffered a setback and is now at 1.52. Hungary’s population would reproduce naturally with a rate of 2.1, he said.