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Almost 20% of people living in Austria born abroad, 36.7% in Vienna

January 7, 2021
Michelle Topham

According to the Austrian broadcasting company Österreichische Rundfunk (ORF), almost 20% of the population of Austria in 2020 was born abroad.

That means 1.765 million (19.8%) of Austria’s current almost nine million residents/citizens were born overseas.

As might be expected, that number is the highest in Vienna, the capital city, where 36.7% of people currently living here were not born in Austria.

The lowest number was 11.6 percent in Burgenland, the easternmost state of Austria’s nine states (Länder in German) and a state with the country’s lowest population.

The latest figures come from a report by the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF), which states there has been an increase of foreign-born residents in Austria since 2015 of around 18.9%.

As also might be expected, the largest number of foreign-born residents in Austria are from neighboring Germany, with a total number of more than 237,800 people now living in Austria born there.

This is followed by 170,500 from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 159,600 from Turkey.

The ÖIF report also comments the income of foreign-born residents in Austria averages 80% of the income of Austrian nationals, with Austrians earning an average net income of 27,00 euros, while foreigners earned 21,600 euros.

The numbers also seem to suggest, without a sizable number of foreign-born residents in Austria, the country would likely see a rapidly declining population.

More information is available on the ÖIF website on the Bundesländer – Statistiken zu Migration & Integration 2020 report — where, if you are one of those people born abroad and needing to learn German, you can also find free language-learning resources in English and nine other languages.

Michelle Topham
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