1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

VII. THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOCIETY

The stratification of active earners Number (in I 000) Percentage Index Class, stratum 1960 1970 1980 1960 1970 1980 1970 1960=100.0 1980 1970=100j0 Working class 2 434 2 819 2 887 51. 1 56. 5 57. 0 115. 9 102. 4 Cooperative peasantry 571 880 608 12. 0 17. 6 12. 0 153. 9 69. 2 Professionals and routine nonmanuals

a) 746 1 128 1 436 15. 7 22. 6 28. 3 151. 2 127. 2 Selfemployed 1 009

b) 162 138 21. 2 3. 3 2. 7 16. 0 85. 4 Total 4 760 4 989 5 069 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 104. 8 101. 6 a) Without workshop managers b) Together with those classified "capitalists and landowners" (4 788). Since in the past decade the number of active earner women rose fairly considerably and the number of men decreased further, the changes in the number and in the composition of the various classes and strata were stronger in the case of women than in the case of men. The active earners of the working class grew since 197 0 for both sexes, but the growth was much less in the case of men (1 percent) than in the case of women (5 percent). Contrary to the general tendency of the growing number of female active earners, since 1970 the number of cooperative peasant women decreased considerably, by 37 percent. The fall was stronger here than in the some category for men (27 percent). The most considerable growth was in the number of professionals and routine nonmanuals, especially in the case of women (36 percent). The changes of differing extent and direction affected the social stratification of men and of women. Among the active earner men the (jominating proportion of the working class rose further since 1970 (from 62 percent to 64 percent), the proportion of the cooperative peasantry fall back (from 18 percent to 14 percent), and at the same time the proportion of professionals and routine nonmanuals rose moderately (from 17 percent to 20 percent). Among the active earner women there was a moderate decrease in the proportion of the working class (from 49 percent to 48 percent), the proportion of the cooperative peasantry decreased (from 17 percent to 10 percent), and at the same time the proportion of professionals and routine nonmanuals rose further (from 31 percent to 40 percent). The vast majority (97 percent) of working class active earners pursued manual activity, while a small proportion of them were foremen or works managers. The number of industrial manuals, who have always constituted the backbone of the working class, was 1 million 288 thousand at the beginning of 1980, 106 thousand (8 percent) less than in 1970. The number of manuals in other branches increased everywhere in correspondence with the change of the divisional structure with the exception of agriculture and forestry, communal, administrative and other services. In 1980 the number of manuals was by 94 thousand more in the non-agricultural divisions than ten years earlier. Simultaneously the number of manuals working at the state farms and in the state forestry - they are classified into the working class - decreased by 25 thousand (to 163 thousand) in the course of the decade. The development of the qualificational level of working class manuals is indicated.by the shift in their staff group composition towards more qualified workers. The number of skilled workers rose considerably by 177 thousand, so their proportion among working class manuals rose from 39 percent to 44 percent in the past decade. The other large group in the working class are the semi-skilled workers, their growth in number was even more considerable (22 percent) than of the skilled workers (17 percent). Simultaneously the number of unskilled workers fell considerably (by 313 thousand), so their proportion in the working class was only 15 percent in 1980 contrary to the 27 percent ten years earlier. The vast majority of the cooperative peasant active earners - similarly to the working class pursued manual activity, only 2 percent of them were foreman or works manager. The large extent decrease in the number of cooperative peasantry was accompanied by an internal re stratification. As a result of the technological progress, the expansion of large scale production and the spread of secondary activities of agricultural cooperatives led to a strong decrease in the number of traditional agricultural manuals, whose number decreased by 50 percent since 1970, but the number of nonagricultural manuals (for example, repair, maintenance, service workers) grew one-and-a-half-fold since 1970. These latter constituted one fifth of the agricultural cooperative manuals 10 years ago, in 1980 they constituted already 42 percent of the cooperative peasantry. The composition of professionals and routine nonmanuals (without foremen) altered in correspondence with the change in the occupational structure. So the proportion of those pursuing technical, health and cultural occupations increased among them since 1970, at the same time the proportion of administrators, accounters and clerks decreased. 116