17.1% of total industrial production in 1995 was produced by the chemical industry, making it the third most significant industry after food-processing and engineering. In 1995, 62.3% of its production was sold on the domestic market, while 37.7% was exported. The chemical industry employs some 82,800 people, or 2.3% of the total workforce, and 12.7% of those employed in manufacturing industries. It is concentrated primarily in Budapest and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Veszprém counties, but it's also significant in the northeastern region of the country (Debrecen, Tiszavasvári), and around the town of Szolnok. In 1995, 41.1% of the chemical industry was state-owned, while foreign ownership was 38.9%.

Value of the production of the sector in 1995 amounted to 666,460 million Hungarian Forints (HUF), imports to 277,051 million HUF, and exports to 232,606 million HUF. The most significant products were petroleum products, industrial chemicals, pesticides, artificial fertilisers, and consumer chemicals. The most significant industries in terms of export were petroleum processing, pharmaceuticals, and the production of base materials for plastics – together, these accounted for 170.4 billion HUF of exports in 1996. Investment in 1995 amounted to 36.1 billion HUF, value added by the industry to 280 billion HUF.

Business prospects for the chemical industry are bright; pharmaceuticals, petroleum processing, production of plastic basic materials and products and rubber industry, which currently account for over two-thirds of the production value of the chemical industry (not counting power-generation related production), are in a strong position, and are set for further growth in the future. Chemicals in Hungary are used in countless aspects of everyday life, and a highly diverse range of industrial workplaces; use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers in agriculture is significant. Some 109 million tonnes of waste is generated annually – of this, almost 20 million m3 is treated effluent, and approximately 4 million tonnes is solid communal waste; the rest is generated by production, more than half of it by agriculture – the larger portion of the rest is non-hazardous waste from mining and metallurgy. Some 3.5 million tonnes of production waste is hazardous, of which 1.5 million tonnes is "red mud" a by-product of bauxite processing. Over the years, some 106 tonnes of non-hazardous waste has accumulated in factories – of this, approximately 38 million tonnes could be put to use.

The quality of statistical data gathering is inadequate. Processing of data supplied by commercial enterprises regarding hazardous waste (HAWIS) is slow, and the scope of data processed is too narrow.