Trust and satisfaction with public services

Trust in public institutions and satisfaction with public services are important yardsticks of the quality of public governance. They reflect people’s perceptions of government competence in designing and delivering policies and services, and expectations on the behaviour of public institutions and their representatives. Although high trust in public institutions is not a necessary outcome of democratic governance, trust and satisfaction with public services facilitate effective governance, as they correlate with high rates of compliance with policies, participation in public life and social cohesion.

Satisfaction with public services in Hungary is below the OECD average. An estimated 44% of Hungarians are satisfied with the healthcare system, 24 percentage points below the average across OECD countries (68%). Hungary (47%) is also below the OECD average on satisfaction with the education system (67%).

 What resources public institutions use and how they are managed 

After stark deterioration due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which required emergency measures and direct support mechanisms to business and people, public finances show positive signs, but the recovery remains fragile. The fiscal balance is the difference between a government’s revenues and its expenditures in a year. When the government spends more than it collects, it has a fiscal deficit. When it spends less, it has a fiscal surplus.

The fiscal deficit in Hungary was reduced from -7.1% of GDP in 2021 to -6.2% in 2022. The deficit is slightly lower than the average across OECD countries at -7.5% in 2021 but higher in 2022 than the OECD average (-3.5). Public debt also decreased from 88.6% of GDP in 2021 to 76.6% in 2022. The level of debt is moderate in comparison to the OECD average of 120.8% in 2021.

Public investment can enhance productivity and economic growth and help implement long-term policies, such as green energy infrastructure to support action on climate change. In turn, governments procure large amounts of goods, services and works to help them implement policies and deliver public services.

Hungary spends more than the OECD average on public procurement, 16.4% of GDP in 2021, compared to 12.9% on average across the OECD countries. Hungary has the highest rate of public investment of all OECD countries. In 2021, Hungary invested 6.6% of GDP, a share almost twice the size of the OECD average (3.4%).

The size of public employment varies significantly among OECD countries, ranging from around 10% to just above 30%. 

Public employment amounts to 19.6% of total employment in Hungary. This number is slightly higher than the OECD average (18.6%).

Governments use different mechanisms to harness and develop the capacity of their workforce. For example, internal mobility in public administrations helps to pool human resources across government and attract and retain civil servants.

Hungary is among the OECD countries where internal mobility of civil servants is possible, although not encouraged nor expected. Similarly, internal mobility for senior-level civil servants is also possible, although it is not encouraged or expected. Hungary has the practice of developing individual learning plans for all or most public employees.

Equal representation of women and men in the public sector is a key indicator of progress towards gender equality, diversity and better representation. In 2020, a majority of employees in the public sector in OECD countries were women (58.9%), with large differences among countries. However, women are often under-represented in managerial positions.

Hungary is far from achieving gender equality in senior management positions in the public administration. In 2021, only 18.7% of senior managers were women, a decrease of 7.3 percentage points since 2011 and significantly below the OECD-EU average (40.8%). There is also significant room to improve women representation in ministerial positions as in 2023 only 9% of ministers are women, compared to an average of 36% across the OECD.

Young people are under-represented in public and political life across the OECD, with the risk that their voice and interests are not sufficiently taken in consideration in policymaking.

In Hungary, the average age of cabinet members – 54 years – is slightly above the OECD average (53 years).