Study finds foreign-born residents concentrated in Austrian cities

About 2.1 million people born abroad lived in Austria at the start of the year, nearly 23 percent of the population, according to a study published Sunday by the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF), reported by ORF. The study found that foreign-born residents are concentrated in cities.

The share of residents born abroad rose by 4.6 percent over the past decade, partly because of violence in Syria and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Some 56 percent come from countries outside the EU, including Serbia, Turkey and Afghanistan. Others come from European countries, including EU members and associated countries such as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. Germany is also among the leading countries of origin.

Vienna has the highest share

Vienna has the highest proportion of foreign-born residents, at 41.3 percent. The districts with the highest shares in each federal state are those containing the state capital or largest city. Wels-Stadt has a share of 36.9 percent, while Salzburg-Stadt and Innsbruck-Stadt each have 36.2 percent. By comparison, the rural districts of Zwettl in Lower Austria and Freistadt in Upper Austria have shares of 3.8 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively.

Among the federal states, Vorarlberg has the highest share after Vienna, at 23.7 percent, followed by Salzburg at 22.2 percent and Tyrol at 21.5 percent. Lower Austria has 15.1 percent, Carinthia 15.6 percent and Burgenland 13.9 percent, the lowest share.

Origins vary by region

People from Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey are among the largest groups across Austria and are the three most common countries of origin nationwide. Germans are particularly numerous in Salzburg and Tyrol, while Hungarians are by far the largest group in Burgenland.

In Vienna, people from the traditional “guest worker” countries of Serbia and Turkey remain the most common. The number of people with Syrian backgrounds has increased tenfold over the past decade, making them the city’s fourth-largest group, behind Germans.

The study says the population’s composition may continue to change, partly because of differences in fertility rates. In 2025, women born in Austria had an average of 1.19 children, down from 1.38 in 2015. Women born abroad had an average of 1.57 children, compared with 1.92 in 2015.