As a Brit living in Austria myself, I am always interested to meet other British citizens who also live in the Alpine country. Whether they have lived there for decades, for a few years like myself, or have recently just arrived.
Up until last year, however, it never really dawned on me to wonder how many British citizens live in Austria. Or to ponder where exactly in the country they live.
Until, of course, Brexit happened in 2016 and last year (2021) was when every Brit living in the country had to have applied for a new residency permit before the end of the year.
If an application had not been filed by December 31st, 2021, due to the Withdrawal Agreement, it was very unlikely any Brit living in Austria would be allowed to stay.
Around the same time, the Austrian government released the latest numbers as to how many British citizens were legally living in Austria.
When I found out, I must admit I thought the number would have been higher.
So, how many Brits live in Austria?
This is what the latest government figures released in January, 2022 say.
How many Brits legally live in Austria in 2022?
As of January 1st, 2022, there were 11,225 British citizens living in Austria. This is a slight fall from the previous year, when 11,529 Brits lived in the country. A drop of 304 in just a year.
With 2021 being the year British citizens living all over Europe had to finalize their legal residencies, however, it probably isn’t surprising a few hundred chose to either move back to the UK or onto somewhere else.
The number of Brits is also quite low compared to other nationalities living in Austria.
As you might expect, the nationality with the highest number of its citizens living in Austria is Germany at 216,789, with Romania at #2 with 138,390, and Serbia at #3 with 121,734.
The other countries rounding out the Top 10 nationalities living in Austria are Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Syria, Poland and Slovakia.