Vienna’s population 2024 - facts and figures on migration and integration

Changes to Vienna’s population since 1961

Over the past 60 years, Vienna has experienced a very dynamic population development. Within a few decades, population numbers in the city first went from stagnant to shrinking and then started to grow rapidly. At the same time, a previously strongly ageing city was turned into a young metropolis - mostly due to international immigration.

The fall of the Iron Curtain, the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Austria’s accession to the EU in 1995, the enlargements of the EU in 2004, 2007, and 2013, and migration in the wake of conflicts and wars, especially from Syria and Afghanistan, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine, have caused the City of Vienna to grow significantly. At the beginning of 2024, Vienna had a population of 2,005,760 residents.

Vienna’s population by nationality and country of birth

The immigration of mainly young persons is clearly reflected in the composition of Vienna’s population. At the beginning of 2024, 35.4 per cent of Vienna’s residents were foreign nationals, 40.2 per cent were born abroad and 45.4 per cent were of foreign origin, which means that they either held a foreign citizenship or were Austrian nationals born abroad.

Composition of Vienna’s population by origin

At the beginning of 2024, 1,295,341 Viennese were Austrian nationals, while 911.152 were of foreign origin. The main countries of origin of Viennese who are foreign nationals or were born abroad have hardly changed over the past years: at the beginning of 2024, 99,627 people originated from Serbia, 76,620 from Turkey, 71,473 from Germany and 55,223 from Poland.

Population of foreign origin by municipal districts

The share of Vienna’s foreign-origin population (persons with foreign citizenship or Austrian nationals born abroad) was 45.4 per cent in 2024. In 5 municipal districts, more than half of the population was of foreign origin - in the districts of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus (since 2015), Brigittenau (since 2018), Favoriten (since 2021), Margareten (since 2022) and Meidling (since 2024). The districts of Hietzing is farthest below the Viennese average in foreign-born residents, with a share of 32.8 per cent.

Migration between Vienna and abroad

Each year, tens of thousands of people move to Vienna from abroad or move from Vienna to another country. In 2023 for example, 70,069 people moved to Vienna from abroad and 48,100 people left Vienna to move to another country. The difference between the number of people coming to Vienna and the number of people leaving Vienna results in the City of Vienna’s foreign net migration, 21,959 persons in 2023 (49.097 persons in 2022).

Since 2006, more people with EU or EFTA citizenship have immigrated from abroad than from third countries every year. The years 2015 and 2022 are exceptions to this, as an unusually large number of people from third countries moved to Vienna in these years due to wars. In 2023, 50.2 per cent of citizens who moved to Vienna from abroad had an EU or EFTA citizenship.

Viennese residents without voting rights

In Austria, the right to vote is tied to Austrian citizenship. Viennese residents who do not hold Austrian citizenship are not entitled to vote in municipal, provincial or federal elections. Thus, an increasing part of Vienna's population is excluded from the most prominent form of political participation. At the beginning of 2024, 34.6 per cent of Vienna's residents above the voting age of 16 were not allowed to participate in federal, provincial or municipal elections.

• 65.4 per cent of Vienna’s residents above voting age are Austrian citizens and are entitled to vote in all elections.
• 15 per cent of Vienna’s residents are EU citizens and thus entitled to vote at least in municipal district elections.
• 19.6 per cent of Vienna’s residents are third-country citizens and are not entitled to vote in any elections.

Especially young persons are affected by the exclusion from the right to vote: 40.9 per cent of the Viennese between the age of 16 and 24 do not possess the Austrian citizenship. The largest share of residents not entitled to vote is found in the cohort from the age of 25 to 44. In this cohort, 291,109 persons (45.7 per cent) were not entitled to vote because of their foreign nationality in municipal, provincial or federal elections in 2024.

Publications

• Integration and diversity monitoring 2020 - including links to download the Monitor
  The 2023 Integration monitor will be published in November 2023.
• Vienna's population: facts and figures on migration and integration 2022 (1 MB PDF) (German)

Printed copies of these publications can be ordered via the Ordering Service of the City of Vienna.