The population of Hungary (2001 estimate) is 10,106,017. The overall population density is 109 persons per sq km (281 per sq mi). Urban areas are home to 66 percent of the population.

From its inception in the 11th century, the Kingdom of Hungary was a multi-ethnic country. Major territorial changes made Hungary ethnically homogenous after World War I, however, and more than nine-tenths of the population is now ethnically Hungarian and speaks Hungarian (Magyar) as its mother tongue. The Hungarian language is classified as a member of the Ugric branch of the Uralic languages; as such it is most closely related to the Ob-Ugric languages, Khanty and Mansi, which are spoken east of the Ural Mountains. It is also related, though more distantly, to Finnish and Estonian, each of which is (like Hungarian) a national language; to the Sami languages of far northern Scandinavia; and, more distantly still, to the Samoyedic languages of Siberia. Ethnic Hungarians are a mix of the Finno-Ugric Magyars and various assimilated Slavic, Turkish, and Germanic peoples. About 3 percent of the population is Gypsy (Rom), and nearly another 5 percent is made up of Slovaks, Romanians, Croats, Germans, and others.