The Role of Socioeconomic Variables in the Regional Inequalities of COVID-19 Mortality in Hungary

Páger, Balázs and Tóth, G. Csaba and Uzzoli, Annamária (2024) The Role of Socioeconomic Variables in the Regional Inequalities of COVID-19 Mortality in Hungary. EASTERN JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES, 15 (1). pp. 272-297. ISSN 2068-651X (print); 2068-6633 (online)

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Abstract

Hungary is one of the five countries in the World which were most affected by the pandemic in terms of registered COVID-19 mortality up to 2023. Our research aims to identify those socioeconomic variables that explain the geographical distribution of registered district-level COVID-19 mortality in Hungary. Using OLS and spatial regression, we found that the higher share of elderly people and respiratory death rate were associated with a more severe mortality burden. Educational attainment was negatively associated with COVID-19 mortality. Variables related to healthcare access were not found to be significantly associated with district-level COVID-19 mortality. Our results indicated that the spatial term of COVID-19 mortality is significant. Positive spatial autocorrelation can be observed in some less developed districts and a few inner peripheral areas where COVID-19 mortality was relatively high, and relatively developed areas like the agglomeration area of the capital in which COVID-19 mortality was low.

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