Hungary Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

air and water pollution are some of Hungary's most serious environmental problems; water quality in the Hungarian part of the Danube has improved but is still plagued by pollutants from industry and large-scale agriculture; soil pollution

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Multi-effect Protocol, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: Antarctic-Environmental Protection

Climate

temperate; cold, cloudy, humid winters; warm summers

Land use

agricultural land: 58.9% (2018 est.)

arable land: 48.5% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 2% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 8.4% (2018 est.)

forest: 22.5% (2018 est.)

other: 18.6% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 72.9% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 0.05% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Revenue from forest resources

0.1% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0.01% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 14.24 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 45.54 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 7.25 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 3.712 million tons (2015 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 962,893 tons (2015 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 25.9% (2015 est.)

Major lakes (area sq km)

fresh water lake(s): Lake Balaton - 590 sq km

Major rivers (by length in km)

Duna (Danube) (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania [m]) - 2,888 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 660 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 3.45 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 550 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

104 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Geoparks

total global geoparks and regional networks: 2

global geoparks and regional networks: Bakony-Balaton; Novohrad-Nógrád (includes Slovakia) (2023)