From Which Countries Do Most of the Foreigners in Vienna and Austria Come?
Vienna currently has 1.92 million inhabitants of whom 31.5% percent are foreign nationals. Austria-wide, there are 8,933,346 people of whom 17.1% are foreign nationals. Below you can see, among other data, the largest foreign nationalities.
At the beginning of 2021, 1.531.262 foreign nationals were living in Austria. The proportion of foreigners was thus 17.1%. / Picture: © BMI Bundesministerium für Inneres
On January 1, 2021, 8,933,346 people lived in Austria, 32,282 (+0.36%) more than at the beginning of 2020.
Thus, Austria recorded a slightly lower population increase in 2020 than in the previous year (2019: +42,289 persons or +0.48%), according to preliminary results from Statistics Austria.
"Austria continues to grow. After increasing by 0.36% to 8.93 million in 2020, the population is expected to reach the 9 million mark in the coming years. Currently, we see the strongest growth in the eastern part of Austria around Vienna, but also in Burgenland and Vorarlberg. Population growth here is driven exclusively by people with non-Austrian citizenship. Without them, Austria would not have grown in 2020, but would have shrunk by 0.17%," states Statistik Austria Director General Tobias Thomas.
17.1% of the population are foreign nationals
According to the preliminary results, a total of 1,531,262 people with foreign citizenship lived in Austria on January 1, 2021.
The share of foreign nationals in the total population increased from 16.7% on January 1, 2020 to 17.1% on January 1, 2021.
Thus, during 2020, the number of foreign nationals increased by 45,039 people (+3.03%), while at the same time the number of Austrian nationals decreased (-12,757 people or -0.17%).
More than four-fifths of the increase in foreign nationals was accounted for by citizens of the European Union, while only about 18% were third-country nationals.
The increase was particularly strong for German (+8,774 persons) and Romanian nationals (+8,329), who were also the two largest nationalities in Austria.
15 largest foreign citizenships in Austria
The 15 largest foreign nationalities on Jan. 1, 2021 in Austria (For details see Image 2/Table 2):
- Germany
- Romania
- Serbia
- Turkey
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Hungary
- Croatia
- Poland
- Syria
- Slovakia
- Afghanistan
- Italy
- Bulgaria
- Russian Federation
- Kosovo
Population growth particularly strong in Burgenland, Vienna and Vorarlberg
With +0.54%, Burgenland recorded the largest percentage population increase of all Austrian provinces in 2020 - just as it did in 2008.
The increases in Vienna (+0.52%) and Vorarlberg (+0.51%) were also significantly above the national average.
Lower Austria and Salzburg (+0.40% each) as well as Upper Austria (+0.37%) ranked only slightly above the Austria-wide population growth.
The increase in the number of inhabitants was somewhat lower in Tyrol (+0.33%) and in Carinthia (+0.17%), as well as in Styria (+0.06%), where the population practically stagnated.
Population increase in 69 political districts, decrease in 24 districts
At the regional level, there was a population increase in a total of 69 political districts in 2020, for instance in all districts of Vorarlberg and Burgenland.
In Upper Austria, Salzburg and Tyrol, most districts also recorded positive population balances.
However, the strongest growth was in the eastern region around Vienna.
The three largest increases were recorded in the districts of Bruck an der Leitha (+1.76%) and Eisenstadt-Umgebung (+1.47%), as well as in the city of Wiener Neustadt (+1.43%).
Population figures declined in 24 political districts. There was an area-wide population decline in the Waldviertel region of Lower Austria, in all of Upper Styria and the neighboring Lungau region of Salzburg, as well as in large parts of Carinthia.
The population shrank most in the district of Leoben (-0.84%), in the two cities of Krems an der Donau and Waidhofen an der Ybbs (-0.78% each), in the district of Gmünd (-0.74%) and in the provincial capital of Innsbruck (-0.70%).