Today in Austria: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday
Upper Austria to offer free morning nurseries, what the new centre-left SPÖ leadership wants for the country, Vienna's toilets are among the dirtiest in Europe and more news from Austria on Tuesday.
Upper Austria to offer free morning nurseries
In Upper Austria, childcare in crèches will be free until 1 p.m. starting from September 1st, 2024. The fees for the afternoon will be made more affordable and will be set at the same level as those in kindergartens, amounting to between € 23 and € 119 per month, depending on the family's income. To finance this, the state will allocate an additional € 10 million from the state budget.
This change was announced by Governor Thomas Stelzer, Deputy Governor Christine Haberlander (both ÖVP), and Deputy Governor Manfred Haimbuchner (FPÖ) during a press conference on Monday. Families with multiple children will receive further reductions in the afternoon fee.
With the new system, children aged zero to six will have access to 30 hours of free morning childcare per week.
READ ALSO: How does childcare work in Austria?
When do Austria’s famous Christmas markets open this year?
With the temperature dropping rapidly, and the days getting (way) shorter it means it's almost time for one of the highlights of the year - Austria's Christmas markets.
What the new centre-left SPÖ leadership wants
The centre-left party SPÖ is holding its party conference in Graz this weekend led by the recently elected chairman Andreas Babler.
Some of Babler's substantive plans are already known from the program for the SPÖ member survey in April, according to a Der Standard report. The party conference will now vote on how the SPÖ wants to position itself for the 2024 election year.
In addition to National Council and European elections, regional elections in Styria and Vorarlberg are also scheduled for next year. Some ideas for the new program had already been disclosed in advance. For instance, a "master plan against inflation" is set to be adopted at the federal party conference, which would enshrine "affordable living" in the constitution. As an immediate measure, rents would be frozen, and VAT on basic foodstuffs would be suspended.
The 322-page document contains 169 proposals, including the demand for a pilot project to reduce working hours with full pay compensation (the exact number of hours to be reduced is not defined in detail, and there is no longer mention of a 32-hour week).
It also proposes a sixth week of vacation for all and the ability to make up public holidays that fall on the weekend during the week. Additionally, employees are to be granted the "right to be unavailable in their free time."
READ ALSO: Could a 4-day week with full salary become a reality in Austria?
Vienna's toilets are among the dirtiest in Europe
According to an evaluation based on Google reviews by the British sanitary retailer Showers to You, Vienna's public toilets are ranked among the dirtiest in Europe, placing sixth in the ranking.
The top spot on this list is taken by the Latvian capital, Riga, followed by major cities like Madrid, Valletta, Stockholm, and Warsaw, broadcaster ORF reported. To compile this evaluation, experts from the company analyzed over 8,000 reviews from approximately 1,000 public toilets across Europe. They assessed the frequency of relevant keywords in the reviews.
Vienna had a normalized "dirty score" of 6.45 out of ten, falling short of the target cleanliness level, as stated by the British retailer. Over ten percent of the ratings for Vienna's public toilets contained terms synonymous with "dirty,".
In terms of ratings, Vienna's public toilets achieved an average score of 3.71 out of five and an overall cleanliness score of 5.49.
Unusually sunny and clear weather in Vienna
Typically, November in Vienna is known for gloomy and foggy weather, according to ORF. On average, this month in Vienna usually offers about 70 hours of sunshine, which is only half as much as October and just a quarter of the sunshine hours seen in July. As the month progresses, the days become shorter, with the length of daylight decreasing from just under ten hours to less than nine hours by the end of November.
This shorter duration of daylight also promotes the formation of fog, as there is more time for temperatures to cool down at night.
However, the weather in Vienna this November presents a different picture. There is still no sign of the typical November fog. For comparison, Vienna has already experienced around 35 hours of sunshine this month, which is half of the usual total for the entire month.
The absence of fog in the early part of the month can be attributed to winds coming from the west, ORF meteorologic experts dais. As long as these conditions persist, fog is unlikely to develop.
While Monday is expected to be the warmest day of the week, with temperatures reaching up to 16C, temperatures will gradually adjust to the season, especially towards the weekend. From Friday onward, temperatures will be around 10C. Nights are also becoming colder compared to the previous week, with the potential for light frost on the ground in the early hours of Thursday morning.
READ ALSO: REVEALED: The best and worst districts to live in Vienna (as voted for by you)
Austria's population increases with immigration
The population of Austria increased to 9,104,772 at the end of 2022 exclusively from the immigration surplus, as the birth balance was again negative, according to a Statistik Austria census of 2022 released on Monday.
The number of Austrian citizens decreased by 17,268 persons in 2022, whereas the population with foreign citizenship increased by 143,111 persons. In 2022, 10,899 persons living in Austria were naturalised, which corresponded to a naturalisation rate of 0.7 percent. On January 1st, 2023, a total of 1,729,820 non-Austrian nationals were part of the population. Their share of the population was thus 19 percent, according to the Demographisches Jahrbuch 2022.
READ ALSO: Austria now has almost 2 million foreign-born residents
If you have any questions about life in Austria, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at [email protected].
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Upper Austria to offer free morning nurseries
In Upper Austria, childcare in crèches will be free until 1 p.m. starting from September 1st, 2024. The fees for the afternoon will be made more affordable and will be set at the same level as those in kindergartens, amounting to between € 23 and € 119 per month, depending on the family's income. To finance this, the state will allocate an additional € 10 million from the state budget.
This change was announced by Governor Thomas Stelzer, Deputy Governor Christine Haberlander (both ÖVP), and Deputy Governor Manfred Haimbuchner (FPÖ) during a press conference on Monday. Families with multiple children will receive further reductions in the afternoon fee.
With the new system, children aged zero to six will have access to 30 hours of free morning childcare per week.
READ ALSO: How does childcare work in Austria?
When do Austria’s famous Christmas markets open this year?
With the temperature dropping rapidly, and the days getting (way) shorter it means it's almost time for one of the highlights of the year - Austria's Christmas markets.
What the new centre-left SPÖ leadership wants
The centre-left party SPÖ is holding its party conference in Graz this weekend led by the recently elected chairman Andreas Babler.
Some of Babler's substantive plans are already known from the program for the SPÖ member survey in April, according to a Der Standard report. The party conference will now vote on how the SPÖ wants to position itself for the 2024 election year.
In addition to National Council and European elections, regional elections in Styria and Vorarlberg are also scheduled for next year. Some ideas for the new program had already been disclosed in advance. For instance, a "master plan against inflation" is set to be adopted at the federal party conference, which would enshrine "affordable living" in the constitution. As an immediate measure, rents would be frozen, and VAT on basic foodstuffs would be suspended.
The 322-page document contains 169 proposals, including the demand for a pilot project to reduce working hours with full pay compensation (the exact number of hours to be reduced is not defined in detail, and there is no longer mention of a 32-hour week).
It also proposes a sixth week of vacation for all and the ability to make up public holidays that fall on the weekend during the week. Additionally, employees are to be granted the "right to be unavailable in their free time."
READ ALSO: Could a 4-day week with full salary become a reality in Austria?
Vienna's toilets are among the dirtiest in Europe
According to an evaluation based on Google reviews by the British sanitary retailer Showers to You, Vienna's public toilets are ranked among the dirtiest in Europe, placing sixth in the ranking.
The top spot on this list is taken by the Latvian capital, Riga, followed by major cities like Madrid, Valletta, Stockholm, and Warsaw, broadcaster ORF reported. To compile this evaluation, experts from the company analyzed over 8,000 reviews from approximately 1,000 public toilets across Europe. They assessed the frequency of relevant keywords in the reviews.
Vienna had a normalized "dirty score" of 6.45 out of ten, falling short of the target cleanliness level, as stated by the British retailer. Over ten percent of the ratings for Vienna's public toilets contained terms synonymous with "dirty,".
In terms of ratings, Vienna's public toilets achieved an average score of 3.71 out of five and an overall cleanliness score of 5.49.
Unusually sunny and clear weather in Vienna
Typically, November in Vienna is known for gloomy and foggy weather, according to ORF. On average, this month in Vienna usually offers about 70 hours of sunshine, which is only half as much as October and just a quarter of the sunshine hours seen in July. As the month progresses, the days become shorter, with the length of daylight decreasing from just under ten hours to less than nine hours by the end of November.
This shorter duration of daylight also promotes the formation of fog, as there is more time for temperatures to cool down at night.
However, the weather in Vienna this November presents a different picture. There is still no sign of the typical November fog. For comparison, Vienna has already experienced around 35 hours of sunshine this month, which is half of the usual total for the entire month.
The absence of fog in the early part of the month can be attributed to winds coming from the west, ORF meteorologic experts dais. As long as these conditions persist, fog is unlikely to develop.
While Monday is expected to be the warmest day of the week, with temperatures reaching up to 16C, temperatures will gradually adjust to the season, especially towards the weekend. From Friday onward, temperatures will be around 10C. Nights are also becoming colder compared to the previous week, with the potential for light frost on the ground in the early hours of Thursday morning.
READ ALSO: REVEALED: The best and worst districts to live in Vienna (as voted for by you)
Austria's population increases with immigration
The population of Austria increased to 9,104,772 at the end of 2022 exclusively from the immigration surplus, as the birth balance was again negative, according to a Statistik Austria census of 2022 released on Monday.
The number of Austrian citizens decreased by 17,268 persons in 2022, whereas the population with foreign citizenship increased by 143,111 persons. In 2022, 10,899 persons living in Austria were naturalised, which corresponded to a naturalisation rate of 0.7 percent. On January 1st, 2023, a total of 1,729,820 non-Austrian nationals were part of the population. Their share of the population was thus 19 percent, according to the Demographisches Jahrbuch 2022.
READ ALSO: Austria now has almost 2 million foreign-born residents
If you have any questions about life in Austria, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at [email protected].
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