The inaugural meeting of the Demographics Section of the Hungarian Economics Association was held on 9 March 2018. The participants of the meeting unanimously elected József Benda, researcher of socialisation issues, organization developer, social educator, founder and head of the professional workshop Alliance for Child and Family Friendly Hungary, and senior research fellow at the Educational Research and Development Centre of Eszterházy Károly University to be president of the Section. At the same time, economist Attila Szoboszlai of ELTE Chancellery was unanimously elected to be Co-President of the Demographics Section.
The Demographics Section was set up in order to draw attention to the cross-sectoral social role of population preservation. According to forecasts the demographic decline has not halted despite the Government’s efforts, continuing at a rate equal to the population of a small town due to multiple reasons identified and unidentified so far. In ensuring the balanced functioning of economy, it is important to focus on the aspects and processes associated with the birth and upbringing of future generations.
Simultaneously with the development of its work plan, the Demographics Section wishes to identify points of contact with other traditional sections of the HEA, particularly with the Health and Health Economics Section, the Development Economics Section, the Economic Policy and Economic Theory Section, as well as of the Culture Economics and the Social Economics Sections.