What would a basic income cost in Hungary?
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Total cost per year
2.17 trillion Hungarian forints
about 6.14 billion US dollars
9.51 million people × 19,000 Hungarian forints a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2022)5.9%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)6.6%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)11.0%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)2.5%
Hungary in numbers
Hungary has a population of 9.51 million (2025) and a GDP of 87 trillion Hungarian forints (about 246 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 19,000 Hungarian forints a month would cost 2.17 trillion Hungarian forints a year (about 6.14 billion US dollars), or 2.5% of GDP. That equals 5.9% of central government expense (2022), 6.6% of its revenue (2024), and 11.0% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 1.68 million) would cost 383 billion Hungarian forints a year (0.44% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 7.83 million), 1.79 trillion Hungarian forints (2.1%).
Default amount: 19,000 Hungarian forints a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Hungarian forints with the World Bank's PPP conversion factor for household consumption (2025) and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2022, 2024
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.