From 1273 until 1918, Austria was the seat of power of the House of Habsburg; one of Europe's most powerful and influential royal families of the past millennium. During this time and in the subsequent century since the Austro-Hungarian Empire's dissolution, the borders and demography of the Austrian state have changed dramatically, with the population growing from approximately three million people in 1800 to just over nine million in 2020. The area of modern Austria's population rose gradually throughout the nineteenth century, until the early 1900s, where it then dropped and fluctuated during the World Wars, before rising again until recent years.

End of an empire

The assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, caused Austria to declare war on Serbia, which marked the outbreak of the First World War. The war (and subsequent Spanish Flu pandemic) would see the deaths of more than 1.2 million people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the area of modern Austria's population dropped by almost 400,000 people between 1916 and 1920. In the years preceding the First World War, Slavic nationalism and tensions between various ethnicities in the empire had escalated to a new level; following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918, new states such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were created for corresponding ethnic groups, while Austrian and Hungarian states were created for ethnic Germans and Magyars respectively (Austria still uses this border today). The Treaty of Versailles had forbidden Austria from joining Germany, however in 1938, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler (who was born in Austria) united the two nations as part of the German Third Reich, with overwhelming support by the people of Austria. In the next few years, Austria's population decreased slightly, as a result of the forced relocation of Jews and the outbreak of the Second World War. Due to the Austria-German union, separate records were not kept for Austrian and German deaths during the war, however most estimates put Austria's total at over 350,000 fatalities.

Post-war Austria

Following Germany's defeat, Austria was split into four separately administered sections, and then the Second Austrian Republic was established in 1955, declaring its permanent neutrality in foreign affairs. In the period after this Austria has enjoyed a period of continued prosperity with a high standard of living and reasonable economic growth. Population growth stagnated in the 80's with the legalization of abortion and improved access to contraception, but has grown steadily in the past three decades. Austria is consistently ranked among the top 20 richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita, and in 2018 it was ranked 20th in the world by the Human Development Index.

Austria: Cisleithania was the Austrian-ruled section of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This graphic shows the total population of Austria: Cisleithania from 1818 until 1910, just before the outbreak of World War I. As we can see from the graph, the population grows rather gradually throughout this 92 year period. The only dip in population comes between 1846 and 1851, possibly as a result of the revolutions that took place in 1848. After this time the population continues to grow before reaching over 28.5 million people in 1910.

The later stages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's history were marked by a period of internal tensions between the varying ethnic groups, as the ethnic Slavs, Czechs and Romance groups felt oppressed by the ruling Germanic and Magyar peoples. The Empire was then dissolved in 1918 following its defeat during the First World War, and a number of new states were formed in the aftermath.

Austria AT: Population: Ages 15-64: % of Total Population data was reported at 65.530 % in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 65.860 % for 2022. Austria AT: Population: Ages 15-64: % of Total Population data is updated yearly, averaging 67.360 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2023, with 34 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 68.100 % in 2003 and a record low of 65.530 % in 2023. Austria AT: Population: Ages 15-64: % of Total Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Austria – Table AT.OECD.GGI: Social: Demography: OECD Member: Annual.

Austria AT: Population: Ages 0-14: % of Total Population data was reported at 12.040 % in 2021. This records a decrease from the previous number of 12.090 % for 2020. Austria AT: Population: Ages 0-14: % of Total Population data is updated yearly, averaging 13.655 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2021, with 32 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 15.510 % in 1994 and a record low of 12.040 % in 2021. Austria AT: Population: Ages 0-14: % of Total Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Austria – Table AT.OECD.GGI: Social: Demography: OECD Member: Annual.

ethnic groups in Austria. name, image, country of origin, continent of origin, Language, Religion, religion, population

Dataset containing ~8000 entries with demographic information on places and 700 entries with information on territories between 1701 and 1808. The information was compiled mainly from original sources and thus carries the bias inherent to them! The original information has very varying categories within which population was recorded (along the lines of gender, civil status, age, "casta"-status and other) which were stored where possible, with some fields calculating aggregated sums from these fields. For more info, see attached metadata file.

Austria AT: Population: per 1 000 Inhabitants data was reported at 8,951.520 Person in 2021. This records an increase from the previous number of 8,916.840 Person for 2020. Austria AT: Population: per 1 000 Inhabitants data is updated yearly, averaging 8,246.615 Person from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2021, with 32 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8,951.520 Person in 2021 and a record low of 7,677.850 Person in 1990. Austria AT: Population: per 1 000 Inhabitants data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Austria – Table AT.OECD.GGI: Social: Demography: OECD Member: Annual.

1941 marked an escalation of the Second World War in Europe. By the middle of the year, Germany and its European allies had already consolidated power across most of the continent, with only the United Kingdom and Soviet Union not under Axis control or on neutral terms with Germany. As population sizes were fundamental to the war effort, both in terms of military manpower and the workforce of the home front, the annexation of other countries proved vital in supplying new volunteers, conscripts, and forced laborers for the Axis war effort. Together, Germany and Austria had a similar population to the rest of Europe's Axis powers combined, with all giving a total population of 154 million. However, the total population of the Axis-occupied territories in Europe was comparable to the Axis home fronts themselves, at almost 130 million people

Germans in the East Eastern Europe had a sizeable population of ethnic Germans who often worked with the Axis powers, and the German Army recruited upwards of a million volunteers from occupied countries. The Soviet Union in particular had a number of Russia German enclaves across the region, that reached as far as the Volga river and Kazakhstan and numbered at several million people. In Russia, these communities had existed for centuries, but they were ostracized or mistrusted by Soviet leadership and the deaths of these communities under Stalin's regime is often considered genocide. In addition to ethnic Germans, collaborators also included large numbers of Eastern Europeans who sympathized with Nazi ideology, or were hostile to Soviet or communist expansion; this also included ethnic minorities, such as Muslims from the Balkans or USSR.

Collaborators in the West The perceived threat of communism in the west saw men volunteer from countries such as France, the Netherlands, or Norway, to fight in the Axis armies. The fluctuating borders of the interwar period also meant that there were many German communities across the borders of neighboring countries, whose men also enlisted in the Wehrmacht. Within these occupied countries, conspirators with local knowledge were used to track down Jews and political adversaries, and many collaborated in order to elevate their positions in the government or enterprises. Apart from Austria, however, the majority of the public in annexed territories were unsupportive or hostile to their occupiers, and after the war, many of the surviving collaborators were tried (and often executed) for their actions.

In 1800, the region of Germany was not a single, unified nation, but a collection of decentralized, independent states, bound together as part of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved, however, in 1806, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe, and the German Confederation was established in 1815. Napoleonic reforms led to the abolition of serfdom, extension of voting rights to property-owners, and an overall increase in living standards. The population grew throughout the remainder of the century, as improvements in sanitation and medicine (namely, mandatory vaccination policies) saw child mortality rates fall in later decades. As Germany industrialized and the economy grew, so too did the argument for nationhood; calls for pan-Germanism (the unification of all German-speaking lands) grew more popular among the lower classes in the mid-1800s, especially following the revolutions of 1948-49. In contrast, industrialization and poor harvests also saw high unemployment in rural regions, which led to waves of mass migration, particularly to the U.S.. In 1886, the Austro-Prussian War united northern Germany under a new Confederation, while the remaining German states (excluding Austria and Switzerland) joined following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; this established the German Empire, under the Prussian leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1871 to 1945 - Unification to the Second World War The first decades of unification saw Germany rise to become one of Europe's strongest and most advanced nations, and challenge other world powers on an international scale, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific. These endeavors were cut short, however, when the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent was assassinated in Sarajevo; Germany promised a "blank check" of support for Austria's retaliation, who subsequently declared war on Serbia and set the First World War in motion. Viewed as the strongest of the Central Powers, Germany mobilized over 11 million men throughout the war, and its army fought in all theaters. As the war progressed, both the military and civilian populations grew increasingly weakened due to malnutrition, as Germany's resources became stretched. By the war's end in 1918, Germany suffered over 2 million civilian and military deaths due to conflict, and several hundred thousand more during the accompanying influenza pandemic. Mass displacement and the restructuring of Europe's borders through the Treaty of Versailles saw the population drop by several million more.

Reparations and economic mismanagement also financially crippled Germany and led to bitter indignation among many Germans in the interwar period; something that was exploited by Adolf Hitler on his rise to power. Reckless printing of money caused hyperinflation in 1923, when the currency became so worthless that basic items were priced at trillions of Marks; the introduction of the Rentenmark then stabilized the economy before the Great Depression of 1929 sent it back into dramatic decline. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi government disregarded the Treaty of Versailles' restrictions and Germany rose once more to become an emerging superpower. Hitler's desire for territorial expansion into eastern Europe and the creation of an ethnically-homogenous German empire then led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which is considered the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Again, almost every aspect of German life contributed to the war effort, and more than 13 million men were mobilized. After six years of war, and over seven million German deaths, the Axis powers were defeated and Germany was divided into four zones administered by France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.. Mass displacement, shifting borders, and the relocation of peoples based on ethnicity also greatly affected the population during this time. 1945 to 2020 - Partition and Reunification In the late 1940s, cold war tensions led to two distinct states emerging in Germany; the Soviet-controlled east became the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the three western zones merged to form the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally, Berlin was split in a similar fashion, although its location deep inside DDR territory created series of problems and opportunities for the those on either side. Life quickly changed depending on which side of the border one lived. Within a decade, rapid economic recovery saw West Germany become western Europe's strongest economy and a key international player. In the east, living standards were much lower, although unemployment was almost non-existent; internationally, East Germany was the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc (after the USSR), though it eventually fell behind the West by the 1970s. The restriction of movement between the two states also led to labor shortages in t...