Magyarország településeinek vallási adatai 1880–1949 I. kötet (1997)

ELŐSZÓ

place after the war, primarily from the areas temporarily re-annexed between 1938 and 1941, but alsó from regions populated by Hungarians of the neighbouring countries. This volume was followed in 1996 by the publication of the relevant percentage distributions by localities. Both volumes contain data according to the administrative territorial changes which took place after the 1949 population census, to the presently valid administrative division of the country (i.e. Budapest and 19 counties), while the former breakdown (Budapest and 25 counties) was left out of consideration. Another volume, chronologically the first one published on religion was, in many respect, different from the present and the aforementioned two publications. It was entitled 'The Jewish population by localities', and constituted a commemorative publication of this population group, of which the overwhelming majority were victimized by the Holocaust. Because of this historical fact, unlike other publications, the population of the re-annexed territories was alsó taken into account. (For more detailed explanation refer to that publication.) The present volume contains locality level data on religion both in absolute numbers and in the form of percentage distributions. This allows for observing the characteristics of individual localities and for having insight into the changes having occurred from 1880 until the middle of our century. In the course of the preparation of this volume we felt the gap consisting of the lack of census data from the 1960-1990 period. At present we even don't know whether the next census will include the topic of religion. Yet, several demographic characteristics - e.g. those concerning nationality, mother tongue and ethnicity - are difficult to be analyzed in the absence of data on religion. Sample surveys and representative data compilations cannot replace fullscope censuses in this respect. An index of locality names annexed to the publication aims at facilitating its use. The table of contents and the preface have been translated into English. Taking all this into account, we hope that the publication of this volume - supported by the National Scientific Research Fund - will serve the interest of sciences and of people striving after new knowledges. Budapest, November 1997 Dr. Miklós Balogh Deputy President 8