Vienna’s population 2023 - 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. Since Austria joined the European Union in 1995, Vienna’s population has grown by 439,430 due to its net migration and its natural population increase, which has been positive since 2004. At the beginning of 2023, Vienna had a population of 1,982,097 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 2023, 34.2 per cent of Vienna’s residents were foreign nationals, 39.3 per cent were born abroad and 44.4 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 2023, 1,102,57 Viennese were of Austrian origin, while 879,526 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 2023, 100,199 people originated from Serbia, 75,907 from Turkey, 69,265 from Germany and 55,151 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 44.4 per cent in 2023. In 4 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), and Margareten (since 2022). The districts of Hietzing is farthest below the Viennese average in foreign-born residents, with a share of 32 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 2022 for example, 92,268 people moved to Vienna from abroad and 43.171 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. In 2022, this net migration increased significantly, to a great extent because of the arrival of Ukrainians in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and amounted to 49.097 persons (2021: 11.984).

Between 2002 and 2005, the number of third-country citizens coming to Vienna was higher than the number of EU or EFTA citizens. But since 2006, there has been a reversal and the annual inflow of migrants from EU or EFTA countries is higher than that from third countries. The only exceptions so far were the years 2015 and 2022, when a high number of protection-seeking third-country nationals (in the case of 2022 third-country nationals from Europe) came to Vienna.

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 2023, 33.4 per cent of Vienna's residents above the voting age of 16 were not allowed to participate in federal, provincial or municipal elections.

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

In some of Vienna’s municipal districts, the share of people who are not entitled to vote is far higher than the city average. In the district of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, 44 per cent of the population above voting age have no right to vote. No other municipal district has a lower share of residents who are allowed to participate in democratic processes. In the district of Hietzing, by contrast, "only" 22 per cent of the population are excluded from democratic participation.

Especially young persons are affected by the exclusion from the right to vote: 39,2 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, 280.299 persons were because of their foreign nationality not entitled to vote in municipal, provincial or federal elections.

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.