Hungarian population in Austria surpasses psychological threshold

According to Statistik Austria, as of the beginning of 2024, the number of Hungarian citizens living in Austria exceeded the psychological limit of 100,000.

Kisalfeld writes: according to preliminary data from the Austrian statistical office, as of 1 January, 107,347 Hungarian citizens lived in Austria. Their number has increased by almost 8 per cent over the year.

According to Austrian sources, from August to November last year, about 8,000 Hungarians left Austria. At that time, 126,656 were still in Austria until the last month of summer, but by the end of autumn, this number had fallen to 118,930.

Based on the experience of previous years and the seasonality of the Austrian labour market, it is expected that the number of Hungarians working in Austria will continue to grow in the coming months. Moreover, it is possible that by spring they will form the largest foreign working community in the country, overtaking Germans. According to Világgazdaság, these workers are expected to take up numerous jobs in the Hungarian economy, which is currently facing an acute labour shortage.

Among the provinces, the capital of Austria, Vienna, has the largest number of Hungarian immigrants. Their number can be estimated at 29 thousand people. 

Statistic Austria reported more than eight thousand Hungarian citizens in Burgenland. And this is only about those who are officially registered. Interestingly, the latter is the only Austrian province in which there are more people born in Hungary than Hungarian citizens.

Last year, 358 people who had previously been Hungarian citizens were granted Austrian citizenship. The annual number of naturalisations has increased fivefold since 2012. Since Austria does not accept dual citizenship as a general rule, new Austrians must renounce their Hungarian citizenship, the newspaper reports. 

According to statistics, in the first month of 2024, 980,567 foreigners were employed in the Austrian labour market. This is a very significant figure, given the fact that Austria has a population of about 9.1 million people. This means that every ninth person in the country is a foreigner.