Michelle Topham 
Short questions and answers about Austria — “Does Austria have a high or low birth rate?“
One of the problems for many developed countries around the world is a declining birth rate.
To the point that many developed countries are not even experiencing what is known as replacement level fertility — ie: the number of children it would take to replace the current generation as they die out.
Without reaching replacement level fertility — generally thought of as 2.1 children per woman in developed countries — zero population growth is the result, followed ultimately by population decline.
If this situation continues for generation after generation, it would eventually lead to a population dying out unless it was replaced with other people migrating to that country.
A declining population also negatively affects future economies, as well as a country’s future stability.
As Austria is one of the world’s most developed countries then, is the Austrian birth rate a high birth rate, a low birth rate, or one that could lead to the Austrian population declining and eventually dying out?
What is the Austrian birth rate in 2023?
According to the CIA’s World Factbook, the Austrian birth rate in 2023 is 9.94 births per 1,000 people or approximately 1.571 births per woman.
In other words, nowhere near the rate required to hit replacement level fertility.
While that number is slightly higher than the birthrate in 2022 (a 0.02% increase), Austria is still ranked 193rd out of 228 countries, meaning the Alpine country has one of the lowest birth rates in the world.
It does, however, still have a higher birth rate than quite a number of other European countries.
That includes Russia, Lithuania, Germany, San Marino, Italy, Serbia, Ukraine, Croatia, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and several others.
Even though Austria has a low birth rate, however, it is still currently a very stable country.
This is primarily because of a large population increase in Austria the last 60 years (a growth rate of over 28 percent) due to a high net migration rate ie: more immigrants moving into Austria than people leaving over the last few decades.
That net migration rate has fallen in recent years, although much of that decline was largely due to Covid 19 and the restrictive policies of the Austrian government among others.
So now you know the answer to the question “Does Austria have a high or low birth rate in 2023?”.
It has a low one.
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