According to a recent poll conducted by the Nézőpont Institute, up to 4.5 million Hungarians may have seen the fireworks in Budapest on 20 August. More than 3.5 million adult Hungarians (45 percent) saw it in some form, and at least 1 million children may have enjoyed the show.

Several opposition politicians have raised the issue of the Budapest fireworks as a matter of public debate in recent years. While left-wing politicians called it unnecessary – Mayor Gergely Karácsony, for example, called it a “harmful passion” – the Hungarian government had been committed to holding “Europe’s biggest fireworks show”. The Nézőpont Institute has conducted a survey to find out how many Hungarians were interested in the fireworks on 20 August, despite the political controversy. 

5 percent of the adult Hungarian population watched the August 20 Budapest fireworks live on site and 24 percent watched it via television, while a further 16 percent watched only a part of the coverage. This means that a total of at least 3.5 million adult Hungarians saw the Budapest fireworks on 20 August in some form. However, as the survey was conducted among Hungarians over the age of 18, the total number of Hungarian viewers may be even higher. The poll also reveals that nearly 1 million families with children watched it in person or via television. All in all, at least another 1 million children may have enjoyed the fireworks in Budapest, which also celebrated the anniversary of the founding of the state. 

Given that the event is held in the capital, the interest of Budapest residents is not surprising: one fifth of the adult Hungarians who saw the fireworks were from Budapest. More than half of the adult population of Budapest, nearly 700,000 Budapest adults, saw the fireworks and more than 200,000 of them watched the event live in person. The overall interest in the Budapest fireworks was similarly high among those living in rural towns (44 percent) and villages (43 percent).

In addition, the national holiday coincided with the World Athletics Championships organized in Hungary. According to the report of the Hungarian Tourism Agency, the sports event attracted 230,000 foreign overnight stays, which may have significantly boosted the audience of the fireworks.

Methodology

The latest opinion-poll of the Nézőpont Institute was conducted between 21 and 23 of August, 2023, by interviewing 1,000 respondents by phone. For all surveys, the sample is representative of the adult population (18 years and older) by gender, age, region, type of settlement and education. In case of a sample size of 1000 respondents and a confidence level of 95 percent, the sampling error is ± 3.16 percent. Respondent base = total adult population.