Pest) is a central Hungarian county (vármegye). With 1,339,090 people living there, it has a population of 2,468.41 square miles (2,393.14 square kilometers) as of 2023. The bulk of the county’s population (65.2%/790,995 in 2009) resides in the Budapest suburbs, which encircle the nation’s capital. Its borders are shared by Slovakia and the Hungarian counties of Komárom-Esztergom, Nógrád, Heves, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Fejér, and Bács-Kiskun. Through the county flows the Danube River. Budapest serves as Pest County’s capital, despite Budapest’s exclusion from the county. As of 2018, they also make up various NUTS:HU level 2 regions, since Pest County already lost out on catch-up funding from the EU due to Budapest’s rapid expansion.