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The people of Tard do not look on their place as "an average village". Here people take pride in everything that comes from Tard, and when there is news of a young man’s marriage, it always adds to the general delight to learn that the bride is also from Tard. Those who have emigrated—above all the "Canadians" and the "Swedes"—regularly return on visits. Even more regular is the return of those who have found work in Miskolc, Eger, Mezoýkövesd or Budapest. On All Saints’ Day or at the time of the local fair, Tard seems to be much more populous than it actually is.

In Szabó’s times, more than 2,300 lived in the village, and the population was growing: forty-eight on average died every year, against seventy one who were born. Today Tard has 1,598 inhabitants. Twenty-seven people died last year, and only seven babies were born. To make things worse, of the 1598 inhabitants fewer than 220 are in full-time employment; the others are pensioners (680), unemployed (112), children, and part-time or casual workers.

Ever since the land reform, there have been no estate owners in Tard; the economic elite is formed by three or four entrepreneurs with some capital to invest, who make a living from farming, running agricultural machine pools, or owning forests. Those who have received compensation for properties seized by the Communists now all work their narrow strips of land, with many of them complementing that with a plot leased from the local government. The co-operative is still functioning, and the intention is to keep it that way.

It is not only the people who have declined in number, so too have the animals. Back then there were still several hundred head of cattle and horses. Now there are fewer than a hundred cows, of which no more than sixty or sixty-five are put out to grass in the village’s common pasture. Today there are only two horses in Tard, the 273 cars are now the largest class of "livestock".

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