The more favorable situation in the western part of the country and in the capital is shown by the 2021 livelihood ranking of the Savings Index, which compares educational, health, cultural and shopping opportunities among others. Budapest has the best overall picture, with seven Transdanubia and two Trans-Tisza districts in the top ten. The capital is misrepresented in terms of crime or affordability.
Savings Index analysts have looked at the conditions in each district of the country that provide the residents with the highest level of service. Educational, health, cultural aspects, labor market opportunities, crime statistics, shopping opportunities, and the affordability of residential real estate were taken into account.
In almost all of the indicators examined, the capital and the western part of the country perform better than the eastern or south-eastern regions, such as education, cultural, shopping and labor market opportunities. Western districts also did well in crime, with fewer population-based crimes.
In many ways, this offers much more difficulty in obtaining housing in the area around and in the west of the capital. Because better options are attractive to many, more people want to move here, which raises the demand for housing and thus prices. A similar duality characterizes larger and smaller cities. The area around the county seats generally provides a better choice, with housing being much more difficult to access, which is explained by higher demand.
Budapest is in the lead, followed by a district of Pest and a district of Fejér County
The awards were given to Budapest in the viability ranking compiled on the basis of the sub-indicators. Many features of the capital are also at the forefront, based on educational, health and cultural characteristics, as well as shopping opportunities. As much as we move towards the end of the field in terms of affordability and crime rate, the other characteristics offset these disadvantages. The districts of Pilisvörösvár, Mór, Debrecen, Tata, Bóly, Budakeszi and Veszprém were also found in the top ten, which show very similarities, although they differ in which characteristics they are better. Among them, the affordability points are cheaper around the larger cities, while the Mór, but rather the Bóly district, which is home to smaller settlements, is much more affordable. However, in the case of labor market conditions, the latter belong only to the middle ground.
The larger ones and their surroundings achieved higher values in the cultural, educational, health, but especially in the labor market indicator, among which several are worse in terms of crime, and are also lower in the affordability ranking due to higher house prices.
The leading edge in education is dense
Budapest has a valuable educational index, followed by the districts of Győr, Veszprém, Szombathely and Bóly based on the number of kindergarten places per kindergarten age, the literacy and mathematical competence results of 8th graders and the number of secondary school classes per unit area.
Budapest is very well included in the number of competencies and the number of available secondary school classes, so the supply of kindergarten places is worse, while, for example, the results of the Bólyi district related to secondary school are low, but most of the kindergarten places per child are here. The vicinity of the county capitals and larger cities at the forefront of education is characterized by a high number of primary school competencies, but also a good supply of kindergartens and secondary schools.
Overall, the comparison has lower educational ratings in the western and southern areas, while the countries in the north-east have lower values, with the exception of some countries, mainly in the metropolitan area.
There is a big difference in who is good at health
For the health sub-indicator, the number of GPs, home pediatricians, hospital beds and pharmacies as a proportion of the population was examined. Budapest finished in the lead, followed by the districts of Gyula, Pécs, Debrecen and Veszprém.
The capital has the most pharmacies per unit area and also has good access to home pediatricians, with one of the fewest children per doctor. However, the number of hospital beds per capita and the availability of adult GPs are preceded by a number of districts. In the Csurgó and Hegyhát district, there are many adult and home pediatricians in proportion, while there is no hospital in the area, and they are also in one of the worst situations in terms of pharmacy supply.
Culture: strong in everyone else
In the field of culture, the advantage of Budapest is indisputable. There is a huge difference compared to other districts in the country, the second place Debrecen received only a fraction of the capital’s points in terms of the number of libraries, cinemas, museum exhibitions and cultural events. There is a big difference between the opportunities offered by different areas. For example, the districts of Sellye, Below, Devecser and Hegyhát are mainly due to the higher number of libraries per unit area, the present cinema is not located, and it is also worse in the field of cultural events. The neighborhoods of the larger cities are lagging behind the main ones in the rankings.
The western areas were better included in the cultural aggregation, and Northern Hungary can also be observed to achieve the most outstanding results of a region, while the south-eastern districts, with one or two exceptions, can show weaker results.
Mór is the safest
Unsurprisingly, the crime situation in larger cities was more unfavorable when it came to examining privileged rights. The safest is the district of Mór, followed by Szarvas, Pilisvörösvár, Gyomaendrőd and Kapuvár. Budapest is the penultimate in this summary.
Overall, the per capita crime rate in the vicinity of the southern shore of Lake Balaton and in several districts of Northern Hungary is higher than average.
It is by far the easiest way to shop in Budapest and its agglomeration
When examining purchasing opportunities, analysts at the Savings Index have shown that, in line with expectations, there are more stores per unit area in and around larger cities.
In terms of shopping, the people in Budapest are in the best position to choose from many shops. The other areas lag far behind the yellow capital, the second-ranked Dunakeszi district is only less than 20 points compared to 100 points in the capital. In the field of shopping opportunities, the districts of Érd, Vecsés and Szigetszentmiklós, which belong to the agglomeration of the capital, were also at the forefront.
Two Keszi lead the labor market sub-indicator
For labor market opportunities, analysts examined the net income per capita in the districts and the proportion of job seekers. The first place is the district of Budakeszi, followed by Dunakeszi and its surroundings, and Budapest, then Érd and its surroundings, the district of Pilisvörösvár. The top ten poses in the capital and its environs were carried out, with the exception of Győr and Csorna and its surroundings. The latter, due to the low number of jobseekers per capita, was much more in the middle of the top ten, earnings.
The labor market conditions in and around Budapest and in the north-western districts are the most favorable. County seats are among the more accessible areas. Overall, in Western-South-East and North-East Hungary there are much more favorable labor market conditions, with the exception of the vicinity of larger cities.
Affordability is the opposite of the labor market indicator
The affordability of the districts was examined to see how many square meters of dwellings could be bought by the residents living in the given district from their annual income. Typically, higher values were achieved in cheaper areas, where higher-income housing could come from low housing prices. The districts of Jánoshalma, Sellye, Bácsalmás, Putnok and Pétervásár proved to be the most affordable. The results show that many people want to move to districts with better labor market conditions because of better opportunities, which in the direction of rising house prices, worsening the availability of homes, despite high wages.
Nationwide, it is easier to get housing in the eastern and southern regions than in the vicinity of the capital and in Western Hungary. But there are also places where it is difficult to buy a home despite low housing prices due to low incomes. This includes the southern shore of Lake Balaton, where prices are relatively high compared to labor market conditions due to the increase in demand in the housing market caused by tourism.
The western county capitals are better
The analysts of the Takarék Index also compared the county seats based on their viability assessments. In this case, too, the capital is in the lead, ahead of Veszprém, Székesfehérvár, Győr, Zalaegerszeg and Szombathely. Among the last major cities, they received the relevant half of the capital.
The various sub-indicators in the field of education are Győr in the first place, ahead of Veszprém and Szombathely. The capital is even preceded by Eger and Székesfehérvár. The cultural index in Budapest is accurate, valuable, detached from other big cities. The second is Zalaegerszeg, the third is Szolnok. Miskolc has the health indicator, in front of Pécs and Szekszárd. In Zalaegerszeg, the crime situation is the most favorable among the county seats, before Debrecen and Békéscsaba, Budapest is the last. The shopping opportunities are the best in the capital, followed by Győr, Pécs, Tatabánya and Szombathely. Budapest is also in the lead in terms of labor market conditions, ahead of Győr and Székesfehérvár, while it is ahead of Salgótarján, Békéscsaba and Miskolc, the most affordable county seats.