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

ELŐSZÓ

PREFACE In recent years in the Hungárián Central Statistical Office — with the assistance of the National Scientific Research Fund — it became possible to conduct investigations on the problem of national and ethnic minorities and, respectively, to prepare data compilations which could not be done during the preceding 45 years. So have been and are being prepared publications on nationalities (mother tongues) with regard to the present area, and to the area now belonging to other states, of the so-called historical Hungary. We alsó intended to publish a similar series containing data in a breakdown by religions. These data had already been published, but not in the form of compilation presented in this series. It was in 1949 that religion was the last time included in the Hungárián census programme, so the 1949 data series have constituted the last element of the historical time series representing the changes in the religious distribution of the population. Ali former Hungárián censuses included the topic on religion. Between 1880-1900 a simple question 'What is your religion or denomination?' was to be answered, while in the 1910-1949 period a more detailed question allowed for underlining the relevant responses. (For more details refer to the volume I. pp. 98-99 of the publication entitled 'Preparatory works and publications of Hungárián population censuses, 1869-1990.') The data on religion have been published in a breakdown by localities and crosstabulated with mother tongue. Up to World War I, in the case of historical Hungary, this combination had been justified, since at that time national minorities were many and great in size, their mother tongues were different which represented alsó differences in their religions. The 1920 and 1930 population censuses carried out on the territory of Hungary established as a consequence of World War I and practically identical to the present one, followed these traditions. Ensuing to the reduction of the territory of the country, the composition by mother tongue of the population changed considerably, it became more homogeneous, while the change in the distribution by religion was not so considerable. It should be noted that in 1941 this combination was again justified since the provisional increase in the area of the country was accompanied by an increase in the number and size of the national minorities. Three other volumes concerning data by religion of the population preceded the present publication. The publication of data on religion by localities of the 1949 census was not feasible because of the social and political context of that period. This could be remedied only now, after the systemic change. At the same time, these data could be the sources of all comparative analyses in the future. They are suitable for comparisons in all regards, since they already reflect the great changes caused by the population movements having occurred during and following World War II. Without aiming at completeness, one should mention here the Holocaust, the deportation of an important part of the Germán population, the resettling called population exchange, including that of the great number of voluntary resettlements which took 7