Austrian population climbs to 8.7mln over 2015

The Austrian population had increased to 8.7 million people as of Jan. 1 on the back of a further increase in the number of foreign nationals in the country.

Statistics Austria revealed in its latest figures Tuesday that 115,000, or 1.3 percent, more people were living in the country at the start of 2016 than were a year earlier.

The 121,000-person increase in the number of foreign nationals in the country took their total number in Austria to 1.27 million or 14.6 percent of the total population, up from 13.3 percent at the start of 2015, and pushed the overall population growth into the positive figures.

A total of 48.7 percent of all foreign nationals were from EU member states, increasing by 46,300, or 8.1 percent, year-on-year, while the remainder from non-EU states increased 13 percent to over 650,000 people.

The migrant crisis and subsequent presence of asylum seekers also had a significant impact on the latter, with noticeable increases in the populations of Syrians (by 21,800), Afghans (18,300), and Iraqis (10,000).

Other noticeable increases over the course of 2015 were recorded in the number of Romanians (9,600), as well as Hungarians (8,700) and Germans (6,000).

The largest population increase was seen in the national capital of Vienna, where the 43,200 new residents took the population to 1.84 million, an above-average 2.4-percent boost in growth attributable largely to the asylum seeker influx. Endit