Population change within the various regions of Hungary is a function of spatial differentials in fertility, mortality and migration. The work of Hungarian demographers has been almost solely in the fields of fertility and mortality, and although extensive internal migration data have been collected since 1955, the analysis of the relationships between migration and population change has been neglected. The analysis presented in this paper uses an ergodic Markovian model to evaluate the potential of current inter-county migration streams in redistributing the population between these areas. A closed system, in the sense that total population within the country as a whole is held constant, is assumed. The model is formalized in terms of matrix algebra. The Markovian model has the advantage that, by examining gross migration streams, the interactions within each annual migration system can be included in the analysis. The implications of the seven annual migration systems for the period 1959 to 1965 are computed. The processes working are such that, within each system, an equilibrium situation is eventually established, from which an equilibrium population distribution for the counties can be calculated. The counties are then classified according to the trend and magnitude of their equilibrium populations for which tentative explanations are advanced. These values are not to be regarded as population forecasts. It is suggested that they are meaningful indices of migration between 1959 and 1965. It is further suggested that the speed of convergence to equilibrium is an index of migration intensity. AT the beginning of 1966 the population of Hungary numbered o. I6 million, making it one of the smaller countries of Europe. The rate of population increase is low, being 2.4 per thousand in 1965 and is entirely attributable to low fertility. Although international migration is negligible, internal mobility is high, and since I957 almost I million internal migrations have been recorded annually. Expressed in another way this means that the average Hungarian can be expected to make just over eight migratory moves between the age of one and death and this figure would be considerably higher if residential mobility were included. The result is a vast redistribution of population, the dominant net movement being from the villages to the towns. The former have consistently lost population since the second world war although, owing to their relatively high rate of natural increase, this was translated into an absolute decline only after I959. Virtually all urban settlements have grown in size through the influx of rural migrants, with the exception of the large Alfold centres which, although having urban status, have most of their gainfully employed population in the agricultural sector of the economy. Trends in the exodus of population from the villages during the post-war period are difficult to determine, because annual data have only been available since 1955, but examination of this material shows that the maximum outflow occurred in 1960, when the villages lost 52,000 persons. In the eleven years from I949 to 1959, 490,000 people abandoned the villages and, since 200,000 left these rural settlements between 1955 and 1959 (a period which includes the abnormally low value of 16,000 for 1955), this would suggest that the annual loss of population between 1949 and 1954 was no higher than that between I956 and I959. Further, even though the average yearly outflow after 1961 was lower than in the preceding five years44,500 compared with 46,400-495,000 persons abandoned the villages in the eleven-year