Press release, 07.06.2024.

Statistical essay and short story competition

This year, in memory of the former President of the HCSO, Dr László Buday, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO), the Csányi Foundation, the Hungarian Statistical Society (HSS) and the National Heritage Association are again launching a joint statistical essay competition for students of higher education and - for the first time this year - inviting students of upper primary and secondary schools (grades 5-13) to write a short story. The competition is organised in honour of the 150th anniversary of the first Hungarian statistical law. The first three winners will receive a cash prize.

The first Hungarian Statistics Act (Act XXV of 1874 on the organisation of national statistics), which entered into force 150 years ago, had the unquestionable merit of being the first to address the issue of the obligation to provide data, in addition to setting out the framework and tasks of the operation of official statistics in Hungary. To mark the anniversary, the HCSO, the Csányi Foundation, the HSS and the National Heritage Association are launching a statistical essay competition for students in higher education.

Applicants are invited to submit papers of 20-30 thousand characters in length on one of the following topics:

1. A historical analysis of the legal regulation of official statistics in Hungary
2. An analysis of the significance of statistical legislation in the light of the data collections of the HCSO
3. The challenges of willingness to respond and data reporting discipline in the 21st century
4. Use of administrative and private data in national statistics.

The organisers are also launching a literary competition in a separate category for upper primary and secondary school pupils (grades 5-13). Short stories of 5-10 thousand characters are invited on the following topics:

1. A day without statistics - what would happen if we woke up one day without data?
2. The life of László Buday in the shadow of the "Great War"

The deadline for submissions is 10 September 2024. The organisers will publish the results of the competition on 10 October 2024. The award ceremony will take place at a conference on 25 October 2024 at the Statistical Palace, the headquarters of the HCSO in Budapest. The first three winners of the essay competition will receive cash prizes of HUF 100, 75 and 50 thousand respectively, while the winners of the short story competition will receive cash prizes of HUF 60, 30 and 15 thousand respectively. Details of the essay competition and the call for short stories are available here (in Hungarian):
Call for applications – Study competition (PDF, 199 KB)
Call for applications – Literary competition (PDF, 162 KB)

Központi Statisztikai Hivatal

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