IN NUMBERS: Who are the new Austrian citizens in 2024?
The number of people receiving Austrian citizenship through naturalisation processes is slowing down. Here's a look at some stats about the new citizens and where they are from originally.
In 2023, Austrian citizenship was granted to 19,939 people, including more than 8,000 living abroad, according to Statistik Austria. The number was 3.2 percent lower in total than last year.
"The trend of rising naturalisation figures did not continue in 2023. The decline is mainly due to the fact that naturalisations of victims of National Socialism and their descendants fell by 17.7 percent", said Tobias Thomas, Director General of Statistics Austria.
Austria's naturalisation rate (ratio of naturalisations to the number of non-Austrian citizens living in Austria) is relatively low compared to the rest of Europe and continues at 0.7 percent. This is because the naturalisation process is not easy in the country - people generally need to be residents for ten years, pay high fees (around €2,000) and give up any other citizenship they hold.
READ ALSO: Will my children get an Austrian passport if born in Austria?
The hurdles are rarely worth it for EU citizens who can live and work in Austria. This is shown in the Statistik Austria data.
Who are the new Austrian citizens?
Only 9 percent of the naturalisations were from people from EU states. The highest proportion of new Austrians held Israeli citizenship (21.4 percent). They are followed by people from Syria (9.4 percent) and the United States (8.2 percent).
Other nationalities include Turkey (5.7 percent), United Kingdom (5.6 percent), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4 percent), and Afghanistan (4 percent). Nine percent of the naturalisations were of people from EU states and 4.4 percent of people from African countries.
The majority of the people naturalising as Austrians that were from the United Kingdom, the United States or Israel resided abroad - most of them were naturalised via the new process for restitution of Austrian citizenship to victims of the Nazi regime and their descendants. In these cases, people are allowed to keep their other citizenship.
READ ALSO: Austria improves nationality law for descendants of Nazi victims
About half of the people naturalising (50.2 percent) were women, and a third were under 18 years old.
In seven federal provinces, more people were naturalised in the year 2023 than the previous year. The relative increases were highest in Burgenland (44.9 percent to 297 naturalisations), followed by Styria (43.8 percent to 1,309), Upper Austria (36.1 percent to 1,808), Lower Austria (33.4 percent to 2,031), Tyrol (18.6 percent to 913), Salzburg (8.8 percent to 530) and Vorarlberg (4.6 percent to 677).
Fewer naturalisations compared to the year 2022 were reported in Carinthia (−21.4 percent to 434) and Vienna (−12.9 percent to 3,899).
Comments
See Also
In 2023, Austrian citizenship was granted to 19,939 people, including more than 8,000 living abroad, according to Statistik Austria. The number was 3.2 percent lower in total than last year.
"The trend of rising naturalisation figures did not continue in 2023. The decline is mainly due to the fact that naturalisations of victims of National Socialism and their descendants fell by 17.7 percent", said Tobias Thomas, Director General of Statistics Austria.
Austria's naturalisation rate (ratio of naturalisations to the number of non-Austrian citizens living in Austria) is relatively low compared to the rest of Europe and continues at 0.7 percent. This is because the naturalisation process is not easy in the country - people generally need to be residents for ten years, pay high fees (around €2,000) and give up any other citizenship they hold.
READ ALSO: Will my children get an Austrian passport if born in Austria?
The hurdles are rarely worth it for EU citizens who can live and work in Austria. This is shown in the Statistik Austria data.
Who are the new Austrian citizens?
Only 9 percent of the naturalisations were from people from EU states. The highest proportion of new Austrians held Israeli citizenship (21.4 percent). They are followed by people from Syria (9.4 percent) and the United States (8.2 percent).
Other nationalities include Turkey (5.7 percent), United Kingdom (5.6 percent), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4 percent), and Afghanistan (4 percent). Nine percent of the naturalisations were of people from EU states and 4.4 percent of people from African countries.
The majority of the people naturalising as Austrians that were from the United Kingdom, the United States or Israel resided abroad - most of them were naturalised via the new process for restitution of Austrian citizenship to victims of the Nazi regime and their descendants. In these cases, people are allowed to keep their other citizenship.
READ ALSO: Austria improves nationality law for descendants of Nazi victims
About half of the people naturalising (50.2 percent) were women, and a third were under 18 years old.
In seven federal provinces, more people were naturalised in the year 2023 than the previous year. The relative increases were highest in Burgenland (44.9 percent to 297 naturalisations), followed by Styria (43.8 percent to 1,309), Upper Austria (36.1 percent to 1,808), Lower Austria (33.4 percent to 2,031), Tyrol (18.6 percent to 913), Salzburg (8.8 percent to 530) and Vorarlberg (4.6 percent to 677).
Fewer naturalisations compared to the year 2022 were reported in Carinthia (−21.4 percent to 434) and Vienna (−12.9 percent to 3,899).
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.