Population: Austria is scratching the nine million
At the beginning of 2022, the number of people living in Austria rose to 8,979,894. That is 47,230 people (plus 0.53 percent) more than on January 1, 2021, Statistics Austria reported on Tuesday based on preliminary results. The increase is therefore larger than a year earlier, when the plus compared to 2020 was still 31,600 people (plus 0.36 percent). There was a larger increase in 2018 by 49,402 people (plus 0.56 percent).
“Austria continues to grow,” said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas. The mark of nine million inhabitants is expected to be reached in the course of this year. “The population growth is due exclusively to people with non-Austrian citizenship. Without them, Austria would not have grown in 2021, but would have shrunk.”
17.7 percent with foreign citizenship
On January 1, 2022, 1,587,251 people with foreign citizenship lived in the country. Their share of the total population has risen from 17.1 to 17.7 percent within a year. In 2021, the number of Austrian nationals increased by 56,179 people (plus 3.67 percent), while the number of Austrian nationals fell (minus 8,949 people or minus 0.12 percent).
With plus 0.65 percent, Upper Austria recorded the largest percentage increase in population of all federal states in 2021. Growth in Vorarlberg (plus 0.59 percent), Vienna (plus 0.57 percent), Tyrol (plus 0.55 percent) and Burgenland (plus 0.54 percent) was also above average. Lower Austria and Styria (each up 0.48 percent) and Carinthia (up 0.44 percent) ranked slightly below. At plus 0.36 percent, the increase in the province of Salzburg is the lowest.
Eisenstadt with the biggest plus
At the regional level, there was an increase in population in a total of 77 political districts. The gains are strongest in the Burgenland state capital Eisenstadt (plus 2.31 percent), in the district of Graz-Umwelt (plus 1.63 percent) and in the two statutory cities of Wiener Neustadt (plus 1.49 percent) and Villach (plus 1. 36 percent) off. The political districts of Braunau, Bruck an der Leitha, Vöcklabruck, Leibnitz, Urfahr-Umwelt and Imst also recorded growth of more than one percent.
17 political districts showed declining developments. The population shrank the most in the small town of Rust (minus 0.75 percent) and in the districts of Murau (minus 0.72 percent) and Gmünd (minus 0.50 percent). There were also declines in the cities of Innsbruck, Salzburg, Steyr and Waidhofen an der Ybbs, in the other three districts of the Waldviertel (Horn, Waidhofen an der Thaya and Zwettl), in Lilienfeld, in Güssing, the two Styrian districts of Southeast Styria and Murtal as well the three Carinthian districts of Wolfsberg, Spittal an der Drau and Hermagor.
Within Vienna, 14 districts recorded a minus, while nine districts saw an increase. Liesing (plus 3.03 percent), Donaustadt (plus 2.53 percent) and Floridsdorf (plus 2.45 percent) are growing the most. The largest population losses were in Margareten (minus 1.18 percent), Mariahilf (minus 1.17 percent) and Neubau (minus 1.09 percent).