Geography and population

Austria covers an area of 83,878 square kilometres with a population of 8,933,346 residents (as of 1 January 2021), including 1,531,262 foreign citizens (16.7% of total population). In 2020, an average of 2.137 million people with migration background lived in Austria, that is 24.4% of the entire population.

Vienna is Austria’s most densely populated province with 4.631 residents per square kilometre and Carinthia the least densely populated province with 59 inhabitants per square kilometre. The average life expectancy is for woman 84.2 years and for man 79.5 years.

Austria is bordered by Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy.

Austria is a federal state comprised of nine provinces; each province has its own capital:

 (S: Statistik Austria, 1.1.2021)

Economy

In 2020, due to the Covid-19 crises, the Austrian economy suffered a decline of minus 6.6%. GDP at current prices amounted to approximately € 375.56 bn (-5.5% in real terms) in 2020 and GDP per inhabitant equalled € 42,110. Austria is in the upper sector not only within the EU but world-wide (source: Statistik Austria).

The Austrian economic structure is mainly dominated by small and medium enterprises. The most important industrial branches are:

• Food industries
• Machine and steel industry
• Chemical and vehicle industry
• Electric and electronic industry
• Wood and paper industry

Climate

Austria has a typical central European transitional climate, i.e. warm summers, cold winters and adequate precipitation.

Additionally, there are two distinct climatic regions in Austria:

• The east shows a Pannonian climate (warm to hot summers, relatively low precipitation and cold winters).
• The central Alpine region has the characteristic features of the Alpine climate (more precipitation in summer compared to the east and long winters with heavy snowfall).

Further information and useful links

Links

• Statistik Austria (English)