Austria - Demographics

Demographics

Austria's population estimate in April 2011 was 8,414,638. The population of the capital, Vienna, exceeds 1.7 million (2.2 million including the suburbs), representing about a quarter of the country's population. It is known for its vast cultural offerings and high standard of living.

Vienna is by far the country's largest city. Graz is second in size, with 250,099 inhabitants, followed by Linz (188,968), Salzburg (150,000), and Innsbruck (117,346). All other cities have fewer than 100,000 inhabitants.

According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.27 million foreign-born residents in the Austria, corresponding to 15.2% of the total population. Of these, 764 000 (9.1%) were born outside the EU and 512 000 (6.1%) were born in another EU Member State.

As of 2011, Statistik Austria official estimates have shown that 81% or 6.75 million residents had no migration background and more than 19% or 1.6 million inhabitants had at least one or more parents of migration background. There are more than 415 000 descendants of foreign born immigrants residing in Austria, the great majority of whom have been naturalized.

350,000-400,000 Turks (including a minority of Turkish Kurds) compose 4% of the total population, and make up today the biggest single ethnic minority in Austria. 13,000 Turks were naturalized in 2003 and an unknown number have arrived in Austria at the same time. While 2,000 Turks left Austria in the same year, 10,000 immigrated to the country, confirming a strong trend of growth. Bosniaks, Croats, Serbs and Slovenes are making around 7% of total Austrian population.