Demographics of Austria
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Austria, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Austrians are a homogeneous people, although four decades of strong immigration have significantly altered the composition of the population of Austria.
According to the 2001 population census, 88.6% are native German speakers (96% Austro-Bavarian dialects and 4% Alemanic dialects) while the remaining 11.4% speak several minority languages. The non-German speakers of Austria can be divided into two groups: traditional minorities, who are related to territories formerly part of the Habsburg Empire, and new minorities, resulting from recent immigration.
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Traditional ethnic minorities in Austria
Only three numerically significant traditional minority groups exist – 14,000 Carinthian Slovenes (according to the 2001 census – unofficial estimates of Slovene organisations put the number at 50,000) in Austrian Carinthia (south central Austria) and about 25,000 Croats and 20,000 Hungarians in Burgenland (on the Hungarian border). The Slovenes form a closely knit community. Their rights as well as those of the Croats are protected by law and generally respected in practice. The present boundaries of Austria, once the center of the Habsburg Empire that constituted the second-largest state in Europe, were established in accordance with the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919. Some Austrians, particularly near Vienna, still have relatives in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. A small minority of Roma and Sinti also live in the country. Its size appears to be growing with emigration from neighbouring countries.
New ethnic minorities in Austria (foreigners and naturalized)
According to the Austrian Statistical Bureau, in Mid-2006, 814,800 foreigners legally lived in Austria, representing 9.8% of the total population, one of the highest rates in Europe.
Of these foreign residents, 305,100 came from Former Yugoslavia and 110,800 from Turkey.
Owing to a growing naturalization rate, 330,000 people have been naturalized between 1985 and the end of 2003, representing about 4% of the 7.4 million Austrian citizens living today in the country.
Of these new citizens 110,000 came from Former Yugoslavia and 90,000 from Turkey. Considering pre-1985 naturalizations, in 2005 at least 18% (in Vienna more than 30%) of the population was either foreign or of foreign origin.
Immigration
300,000 ethnic Turks (including a minority of Turkish Kurds) currently live in Austria. At about 3% of the total population, they 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.[1]
Resistance by many Austrians and by the Austrian Government to open EU access talks with Turkey in October 2005 appears to be at least partially linked to the fear that, if free to move in the EU territories, a disproportionate number of Turkish citizens could choose Austria as a suitable place for emigration, as it already has a well established Turkish community. As a comparison, only 12,000 Turkish citizens were living in Italy at the beginning of 2004.
The role of religion
About 78% of all Austrians are Roman Catholic. The church abstains from political activity; however, lay Catholic organizations are aligned with the conservative People's Party. The Social Democratic Party long ago shed its anticlerical stance. Small Lutheran minorities are located mainly in Vienna, Carinthia, and Burgenland. An estimated 15,000 Jews or adherents of Judaism live in Austria, primarily in Vienna – a remnant of the post-WWII community after the Nazi Holocaust. Immigration during the last decades has increased the percentage of Muslims to 4.7%, making Islam Austria's second-largest religious group, outnumbering the traditional second Christian denomination of Protestantism in 2009.
Demographic statistics from the CIA World Factbook and Statistik Austria
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook and Statistik Austria.
Population
- 8,210,281 (July 2009)
- country comparison to the world: 93
Age structure
- 0–14 years: 14.5% (male 609,748/female 581,144)
- 15–64 years: 67.5% (male 2,785,091/female 2,756,402)
- 65 years and over: 18% (male 612,613/female 865,283) (2009 est.)
Median age
- Total: 42.2 years
- Male: 41.1 years
- Female: 43.2 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate
- 0.052% (2009 est.)
- country comparison to the world: 197
Birth rate
- 9.3 births/1,000 population (2008 est)
- country comparison to the world: 218
Death rate
- 9.0 deaths/1,000 population (2008)
- country comparison to the world: 67
Net Migration Rate
- 1.85 migrants/1,000 population (2009 est.)
- country comparison to the world: 45
Urbanization
- Urban population: 67% of total population (2009 est.)
- Rate of urbanization: 0.7%
Sex ratio
- At birth: 1.05 male/female
- Under 15 years: 1.05 male/female
- 15–64 years: 1.01 male/female
- 65 years and over: 0.71 male/female
- Total population: 0.95 male/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate
- Total: 4.42 deaths/1,000 live births
- country comparison to the world: 202
- Male: 5.39 deaths/1,000 live births
- Female: 3.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2009)
Life expectancy at birth
- Total population: 79.5 years
- country comparison to the world: 27
- Male: 76.6 years
- Female: 82.56 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate
- 1.41 children born/woman (2008 est.)
- country comparison to the world: 197
- TFR by religion: Roman Catholic – 1.32; Protestant – 1.21; Islam – 2.34; Other religions – 1.44; Nonreligious – 0.86. [2]
- Births out of wedlock – 38.4%
HIV/AIDS
- Adult prevalence rate: 0.2% (2006 est.)
- country comparison to the world: 93
- People living with HIV/AIDS: 9,800 (2007)
- country comparison to the world: 105
- New Infections with HIV/AIDS: 453 (2005)
- Deaths: 54 (2004)
Nationality
- Noun: Austrian(s)
- Adjective: Austrian
Ethnic groups
- Austrians 82.5%, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes Croatians, Slovenes, Serbs, and Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, German 0.9%, other or unspecified 2%, none 12% (2001 census)
Religions
- Roman Catholic 73.6%, Protestant 4.7%, Muslim 4.2%, other 3.5%, unspecified 2%, none 12% (2001 census)
- Roman Catholicism in Austria
- Buddhism in Austria
- Hinduism in Austria
- Islam in Austria
- History of the Jews in Austria
- Paganism in the Eastern Alps
Languages
- German (official nationwide) 88.8% (94% Bavarian, 6% Alemanic)
- Slovene (official in Carinthia) 0.2–0.5%
- Croatian (official in Burgenland) 0.3%
- Hungarian (official in Burgenland) 0.2%
- Czech 0.2%
- Slovak 0.1%
- Romany ?%
- Languages of the recent immigrant groups 10% (Census 2001)
Literacy
Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
- Total population: 98%
- Male: NA%
- Female: NA%
- Illiterates: some 3–4% of Austrians are functionally illiterate [3]
Education expenditures
- 5.4% of GDP
- country comparison to the world: 52
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".- Statistik Austria – Census 2001
- Statistik Austria – Monthly Statistical Tables – Vital Statistics
- Statistik Austria – Quarterly Population Estimates
External links
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