Language

Official language
German (88.6%),

Other Languages
Austro-Bavarian (Austro-Bavarian (the main dialect outside Vorarlberg), Alemannic (the main dialect in Vorarlberg).
Turkish (2.3%), Serbian (2.2%), Croatian (1.6%), Hungarian (0.5%), Slovenian (0.3%), Czech (0.2%), other (4.4%).

T-index
0.47%

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.

Most spoken foreign languages
English (40.64%), French 6.91%, Italian 5.54%, Spanish (2.45%)

English
Moderate proficiency (EF) – 2 of 112 countries/regions in the world- 2/35 position in Europe.

Demography

Capital: Vienna
Currency: Euro
Population: 8,96 m
Population density: 108/km2

Economy

GDP: 477.08 billion USD (2019)
GDP per capita: 53,267.9 USD ‎(2019) ‎
Exports: $160 billion (2020)

Statistics

Internet users: 93% penetration, 8.42 million
Unemployment rate: 6.2% (2020)
Urbanisation: 58.52% (2020)
Literacy: 99% (2020)

Conventions

Numbering system
Arabic numerals with comma as decimal separator, space or dot as thousands separator.

Date format: dd.mm.yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 0043

Economy

Imports
$165 billion (2020). Cars ($7.91B), Broadcasting Equipment ($4.53B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($4.23B), Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($3.69B), and Packaged Medicaments ($3.64B), importing mostly from Germany ($64.4B), Italy ($10.4B), Switzerland ($8.32B), China ($8.01B), and Czechia ($7.71B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 98% have an account with a financial institution
• 47% have a credit card
• 63% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 78.7 out of 100) ranked 13th out of 44 OECD & high income countries ranked 27th out of 190 countries worldwide (2020, World Bank)

Exports
$160 billion (2020). Cars ($7.02B), Packaged Medicaments ($6.48B), Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($4.96B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($4.14B), and Flavored Water ($2.86B), exporting mostly to Germany ($46.6B), United States ($10.6B), Italy ($9.75B), Switzerland ($8.82B), and France ($6.89B).

Main local online stores
Amazon, Zalando, Universa, Otto, Media Markt, Shop Apotheke, Electronic4You, E-tec.at, H&M, Apple

Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (rated 73.8 out of 100) ranked 15th amongst 45 countries in Europe ranked 22nd worldwide out of 186 countries (2019, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 10th out of 39 European countries, 18th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media language
German

Information channels
Austria’s public broadcaster, Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), is a major player in the TV and radio markets. It faces competition from private broadcasters.

Cable or satellite TV is available in most homes and is often used to watch German stations, some of which carry programmes for Austrian viewers.
A daily newspaper is a must for many Austrians. National and regional titles compete fiercely for readers. The print media are owned by a handful of mostly Austrian and German media groups.

US-based NGO Freedom House gave Austria a 4/4 score for media freedom and independence in 2018. Reporters Without Borders says “press freedom is very well established”.

The press

Die Presse –daily
Kronen Zeitung – mass-circulation daily, regional editions
Kleine Zeitung – Graz-based daily
Wiener Zeitung – Vienna-based daily
Der Standard – daily
Der Kurier – mass-circulation daily
News – current affairs weekly

Television

ORF – public broadcaster, operates national channels ORF 1, ORF 2
ATV – national, commercial; via cable and terrestrially

Radio

ORF – public, operates Radio Oesterreich 1, pop music station OE3, youth station FM4 and a tier of regional services
KroneHit Radio – commercial, nationally-networked pop music station
Energy 104.2– – commercial, Vienna pop music station
Radio Arabella – commercial, Vienna music station

News agency

APA (Austria Presse Agentur) – owned by 15 newspapers and ORF
Oe24 – news website

Internet Data

Internet users
88% penetration, 7.90 million

Share of web traffic by device
38.95% mobile phones, 58.85% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.15% tablet devices, others 0.04%

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
50.31 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
51.01% Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 138.8%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 98.2%

Most popular web search engines
Google (95.91%), Bing (2.01%), Duckduckgo (0.72%),Yahoo (0.62%), Ecosia (0.54%), Yandex Ru (0.07%)

Most used social media
Facebook (64.71%),Pinterest (15.71%),  Instagram (7.93%), Twitter (7.82%),  YouTube (2.51%), Tumblr (0.67%)

Social statistics

Life expectancy
81.63 yrs (2020)

Gender
Legislation, such as pay equity, shared parental leave etc. aims to achieve total equality between men and women, however, traditional gender roles do still exist, especially within the older generations. Some women do still enjoy the traditional ways of men showing respect (such as letting the woman walk through a door first). Also, some argue that the government’s initiative of giving families extra money for each child born is really intended to keep mothers from going back to work too early.

Religion
80% of the population is Christian with an overwhelming majority being Roman Catholic. 10% are Muslim, Jewish or Orthodox. The influence of the Roman Catholic church is still strong but decreasing. Currently, Austria, like many other European countries, is trying to come to terms with the fact that Turkey, a Muslim country, has applied for EU membership.

Glass Ceiling Index
61.9 out 100, ranked 17th out of 29 countries.

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.

Graduates (tertiary education):
In 2019, 42% of 25-34 year-olds had a tertiary degree in Austria compared to 45% on average across OECD countries.

Class and Ethnicity: 88% of Austrians are of German ethnicity, the remaining 12% are descendants from neighbouring cultures such as Croatians, Slovenes, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks and Roma. The population is very homogeneous, since almost all of these minority cultures were at some point in time part of former multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic empires. Class related to ethnicity and profession does impact how one is perceived and sometimes also how one is treated. Guest workers, immigrants from Eastern countries, refugees and established minorities such as the “Roma” may be perceived as lower class than the Austrian-born population. While government funded post-secondary education sustains efforts to transcend class barriers, stereotypical views of different groups continue to exist.

These factors impact the workplace to the extent men continue to outnumber women in leadership positions. Workplaces become more ethnically diverse as more guest workers and refugees enter the Austrian workforce. Unfortunately, many are employed in low-profile manual jobs, which are often the types of jobs Austrians tend to avoid.