ABSTRACT
The possibilities for an international comparison of social mobility are exceptionally good, as there are several major and several additional smaller data sources containing data on social mobility. In order to understand the meaning of different types of social mobility, the relative position of the different social strata in the social hierarchy has to be presented. The easiest way to illustrate the social stratification in Hungary is to give the average per capita income levels of the households of different social strata. The difference between Hungary and the after-tax income distribution of Sweden, however, does not seem to be very important. In the 1930s Hungary had a semideveloped economy, with more than half of the population employed in agriculture; two-thirds of the population lived in villages, about 40% of the cultivated area was owned by absentee landlords and, in consequence, about two-fifths of the population employed in agriculture were landless workers.
