Austrian population growing by 60,000 each year: official figures

Austria's population is to grow by about 60,000 people annually in the coming years, Statistics Austria said Tuesday.

The statistics office had initially calculated an annual population increase of 45,000 persons for the years 2015 to 2020, but the large influx of asylum seekers this year has revised its figure upwards, initially to 70,000 per year. The statistics authority thereafter eased the figure downwards to give the overall average of 60,000.

Should the influx of migrants and subsequent asylum applications continue at a strong level, however, the number could increase to 98,000 per year, it said.

Statistics Austria director general Konrad Pesendorfer said migration is responsible for the positive growth rate, briefly increasing the number of working-age individuals in the near-term from 5.3 to 5.5 million and pushing an otherwise expected downturn by several years.

He said by the year 2030, however, this segment of the population will sink to below the present level.

Migration trends are also expected to lead to a continued increase in the percentage of people living in Austria who were born overseas, from the current 1.45 million to 2.07 million by the year 2030, which will then be 26 percent of the overall population.

Statistics Austria said on a national level it expects the 9 million population level to be surpassed in the year 2022, and to reach 9.31 million by 2030, an increase of 9 percent over 2014. Endit