States of Austria
Austria is a
federal republic made up of 9
states, known in
German as
Länder (singular
Land). Since
Land is also the German word for "country", the term
Bundesländer ("Federal States"; singular
Bundesland) is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The
Constitution of Austria uses both terms.In English, the term
(Bundes)land is commonly rendered as both
state and
province.
Each Austrian state has an elected
legislature, the
Landtag, a state government, the
Landesregierung, and a governor, the
Landeshauptmann. Elections are held every five years (six years in
Upper Austria). The state constitution, among other things, determines how the seats in the state government are assigned to political parties, with most states having a system of proportional representation based on the number of delegates in the
Landtag in place. The
Landeshauptmann is always elected by the
Landtag, meaning that it may be necessary to form a coalition in order to secure the election of a particular candidate.
However, Austrian
federalism is usually considered largely notional, as the states are granted comparatively little actual legislative autonomy. On one hand, federal
legislature takes precedence over state legislature in most matters of practical importance, including, but not limited to, criminal law, civil law, corporate law, most other aspects of economic law, education, academia, welfare, telecommunications, and the health care system. On the other hand, Austria's states have no stand-alone
judiciary, the federal constitution defining jurisdiction to be exclusively federal matter.
This is largely due to historic reasons, as central power during the time of the empire was largely concentrated in Vienna. This historical development is in stark contrast to developments in Germany.
However, the state governor (
Landeshauptmann) is also in charge of the administration of much of federal administrative law within the respective state, which makes this post an important political position. Furthermore, state competences include zoning laws, planning issues and public procurement on the regional level, which adds considerable weight to state politics. As a practical matter, there have been cases where states have been able to block projects endorsed by the federal government, as in the case of a railway tunnel that was to be built below the
Semmering.
Still, Austrian
Länder are formally and practically endowed with a much smaller degree of statehood than
American or even
German states are. Even so, Austrians tend to passionately identify with their respective
Land and often defend what little independent governance their states have. It is not unheard of for Austrians to consider themselves, for instance,
Tyrolean first, Austrian second.
The nine states of Austria, listed alphabetically by official
German name, are:
Much of the land in the states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna, and Burgenland are situated in the
Danube valley and thus consist almost completely of accessible and easily arable terrain. The other five states, in contrast, are located in the
Alps and thus comparatively unsuitable for agriculture. Their terrain is also relatively unfavourable to heavy industry and long-distance trade. Accordingly, the population of what now is the Republic of Austria has been concentrated in the former four states since prehistoric times. Austria's most densely populated state is the city state of Vienna, the heart of what is Austria's only
metropolitan area. Lower Austria only ranks fourth with regard to population density even though containing Vienna's suburbs; this is due to large areas of land predominantly agricultural. The alpine state of Tyrol, the less alpine but geographically secluded state of Carinthia, and the definitely not alpine but near-exclusively agricultural state of Burgenland are Austria's least densely populated states. The alpine state of Vorarlberg is an anomaly.
The following ranked lists of Austrian states cites population figures from the
2001 census:
| State | Capital | Population | Area | Pop. density | Cities | Towns |
|---|
| 1. | Vienna | Vienna | 1,550,123 | 415 | 3735.2 | 1 | 0 |
| 2. | Lower Austria | Sankt Pölten | 1,545,804 | 19,178 | 80.6 | 74 | 499 |
| 3. | Upper Austria | Linz | 1,376,797 | 11,982 | 114.9 | 29 | 416 |
| 4. | Styria | Graz | 1,183,303 | 16,392 | 72.2 | 34 | 509 |
| 5. | Tyrol | Innsbruck | 673,504 | 12,648 | 53.2 | 11 | 268 |
| 6. | Carinthia | Klagenfurt | 559,404 | 9,536 | 58.7 | 17 | 115 |
| 7. | Salzburg | Salzburg | 515,327 | 7,154 | 72.0 | 10 | 109 |
| 8. | Vorarlberg | Bregenz | 372,791 | 2,601 | 143.3 | 5 | 91 |
| 9. | Burgenland | Eisenstadt | 227,569 | 3,965 | 70.0 | 13 | 158 |
The population figures cited are generally assumed to be accurate to within five percent and to remain so until the next census, scheduled for
2011.
Areas are given in
square kilometres,
population density is expressed in inhabitants per square kilometre. For the purpose of the above list, a "city" is a community defined to be a city by Austrian law; a "town" is a community not defined to be a city. Many of Austria's "cities" have population figures on the order of ten thousand inhabitants; some are even smaller.
In terms of boundaries, the state of Salzburg is equivalent to the former Austro-Hungarian Duchy of Salzburg, where
Austria-Hungary was the wide-stretching multinational
empire from whose
German-speaking kernel the Republic of Austria emerged when the empire was torn apart by
nationalist and
republicanist forces near the end of
World War I. The states of Upper Austria and Lower Austria are mostly equivalent to what formerly were the two semi-autonomous halves of the Archduchy of Austria, a principality which formed the empire's historic heartland and which had to cede significant tracts of land to
Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the empire's dissolution. Similarly, the state of Carinthia descends from the Duchy of Carinthia, the state of Styria descends from the Duchy of Styria, and the state of Tyrol descends from the Princely County of Tyrol; these provinces had to cede territories to
Italy and
Yugoslavia when Austria emerged in its present form. Also, the state of Vorarlberg had been a part of the County of Tyrol up until
1918. The city state of Vienna was a part of Lower Austria up until
1921. The state of Burgenland is a more or less artificially agglutinated entity consisting of four German-speaking districts of
Hungary that were ceded to Austria in
1920-
1921.
*
Distribution of seats in the Austrian Landtagen
