Burgenland has Austria’s highest per capita land consumption

Burgenland received a poor assessment for soil protection in the 2026 WWF Soil Report, despite ranking among Austria’s better-performing states, ORF reported. It scored 3.3, placing joint third with Styria behind Salzburg and Lower Austria. No state received a rating of exemplary or solid.

The report praised Burgenland’s regional settlement boundaries and relatively extensive priority zones for agriculture and nature. However, it found that effective limits were missing for new business areas and roads, while major gaps remained in preventing further land-intensive projects.

The roughly 10-hectare Mittelburgenland Business Park, built on former arable land, was cited as an example of this contradiction.

Burgenland also recorded the highest land consumption per person of any Austrian state, with 1,251 square metres of consumed land and 30 metres of road per person. Since 2022, a further 22 square metres per person have been used, almost three times the Austrian average.

The WWF said the findings pointed to a structural problem in spatial planning across Austria. No state has a binding, quantified target for reducing land consumption, the report said.

WWF soil protection spokesman Simon Pories said the analysis showed a clear failure of soil policy, with valuable land continuing to be built on and sealed despite record heat, while effective limits were largely absent.

The WWF is calling on the federal government and states to introduce binding, quantified soil protection targets, set clear limits for new business areas and roads, strengthen town centres and improve protection for undeveloped land. It said vacant buildings and already developed land should be used and revitalised before new sealing takes place, while agricultural land, green spaces and valuable natural areas should be protected.