Abstract
In the post-socialist era in the economic life of Hungary profound changes started. The most important were privatization and coming of foreign capital. Therefore, strong differentiation started, which had both spatial and social aspects. The capital, Budapest, and the northwestern part of Hungary developed very dynamically, while southern and eastern part of the country stagnated. All of this influenced social differentiation: in 1998 the difference between 10% of the reaches and the 10% of the poorest strata in society was 5,8:1, while in the year 2000 they were 9:1. Unemployment and poverty became widespread. Deep social problems have not been solved by now.