Counties

Hungary is subdivided administratively into 19 counties, as shown in the table below. In addition to these, there is one capital city (fováros): Budapest. The counties and the capital are the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) third-level units of Hungary. The counties are further subdivided into 167 subregions (kistérségek), and Budapest is comprised of its own subregion.

County County Seat Towns/Villages Area (sq km)
Bács-Kiskun Kecskemét 119 8,445
Baranya Pécs 301 4,430
Békés Békéscsaba 75 5,631
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén Miskolc 355 7,247
Csongrád Szeged 60 4,263
Fejér Székesfehérvár 108 4,359
Gyor-Moson-Sopron Gyor 182 4,208
Hajdú-Bihar Debrecen 82 6,211
Heves Eger 119 3,637
Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Szolnok 75 5,582
Komárom-Esztergom Tatabánya 76 2,265
Nógrád Salgótarján 129 2,546
Pest Budapest 186 6,393
Somogy Kaposvár 244 6,036
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Nyíregyháza 228 5,936
Tolna Szekszárd 108 3,703
Vas Szombathely 216 3,336
Veszprém Veszprém 217 4,493
Zala Zalaegerszeg 257 3,784

There are five towns with county's rights in addition to the county seats:

  • Érd (Pest county)
  • Dunaújváros (Fejér county)
  • Hódmezovásárhely (Csongrád county)
  • Nagykanizsa (Zala county)
  • Sopron (Gyor-Moson-Sopron county)

Regions

Since 1996, the counties and City of Budapest have been grouped into 7 regions for statistical and development purposes, as shown in the table below. These seven regions constitute NUTS' second-level units of Hungary. The regional division is expected to replace the present 20 administrative division into 19 counties and the capital city. Regions are groupings of these units.

Region Regional Centre Population Area (sq km)
Northern Hungary Miskolc 1,289,000 13,428
Northern Great Plain Debrecen 1,554,000 17,749
Southern Great Plain Szeged 1,367,000 18,339
Central Hungary Budapest 2,825,000 6919
Central Transdanubia Székesfehérvár 1,114,000 11,237
Western Transdanubia Gyor 1,004,000 11,209
Southern Transdanubia Pécs 989,000 14,169

Urban Counties

There are also 23 towns with county rights (megyei jogú város), sometimes known as 'urban counties' in English (although there is no such term in Hungarian). The local authorities of these towns have extended powers, but these towns belong to the territory of the respective county instead of being independent territorial units.

The urban counties are:

  • Békéscsaba
  • Debrecen
  • Dunaújváros
  • Eger
  • Érd
  • Gyor
  • Hódmezovásárhely
  • Kaposvár
  • Kecskemét
  • Miskolc
  • Nagykanizsa
  • Nyíregyháza
  • Pécs
  • Salgótarján
  • Sopron
  • Szeged
  • Székesfehérvár
  • Szekszárd
  • Szolnok
  • Szombathely
  • Tatabánya
  • Veszprém
  • Zalaegerszeg