134,000 people live in Lower Austrian municipalities without grocery stores

About 134,000 people in Lower Austria live in municipalities without a grocery store, according to a study by KMU Forschung Austria commissioned by the Austrian Economic Chamber. ORF reported the findings on Sunday.

The study, based on business-location and municipal data from 2021 to 2024, found that Lower Austria still has a dense network of grocery retailers overall, but is among the states with the most residents in municipalities without a local store. A previous study had counted more than 100,000 people in this situation.

The figures measure whether a municipality has a grocery retailer within its borders. They do not show how far residents must travel to reach a store, which may be in a neighbouring municipality.

Small municipalities are most affected. Across Austria, 72 percent of municipalities with fewer than 500 residents had no grocery store in 2024. No municipality with more than 5,000 residents was found to be without one. The study said the challenge is concentrated in small, peripheral communities, some of which are heavily shaped by commuter traffic.