Hungarians in Ukraine
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 156,600 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Zakarpattia Oblast | |
| Languages | |
| Predominantly Hungarian (95.4%) |
The Hungarians in Ukraine number 156,600 people according to the Ukrainian census of 2001 and are the fifth in number national minority in the country. They are the seventh biggest Hungarian diaspora in the World. Hungarians are largely concentrated in the Zakarpattia Oblast (particularly in Berehove Raion and Berehove city) where they form the largest minority at 12.1% of the population (12.7% when native language is concerned). In the area along the Ukrainian border with Hungary (Tisza Valley), Hungarians form the majority.
Today's territory of Zakarpattia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary since its foundation in the year 1000. From 1867, Hungary was a constituent part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until the latter's demise at the end of World War I. The Zakarpattia region was briefly part of the short-lived West Ukrainian National Republic in 1918 and occupied by Romania at end of that year. It was later recaptured by Hungary in the summer of 1919. After the defeat of the remaining Hungarian armies in 1919, the Paris Peace Conference concluded the Treaty of Trianon that awarded Zakarpattia to the newly formed Czechoslovakia as the Subcarpathian Rus, one of the four main regions of Czechoslovakia, the others being Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.
During the World War II German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the southern, Hungarian majority part of the region was awarded to Hungary under the First Vienna Award in 1938. The remaining portion was constituted as an autonomous region of the short-lived Second Czechoslovak Republic. After the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15, 1939 and the Slovak declaration of an independent state, Ruthenia declared its independence (Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine) but it was immediately occupied and later annexed by Hungary.
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