Where Do People Move Within Austria?

Internal Migration in Austria

While international migration often receives considerable public and media attention, migration movements within Austria—referred to as internal migration—tend to receive less attention.

Nevertheless, internal migration is a key driver of regional population change. Particularly in smaller municipalities, migration gains and losses can have a significant impact on population development, settlement patterns, and local planning needs.

The population of a municipality changes through three main components: births and deaths, international migration, and internal migration within Austria. Understanding internal migration patterns therefore provides valuable insights into demographic change, spatial development, and regional dynamics.

This dashboard provides an interactive overview of internal migration in Austria. Explore migration flows, net migration balances, demographic characteristics, and long-term trends across municipalities, districts, and federal states over the period 2002–2023.

Data source: Statistik Austria, Internal Migration Statistics.

The Sankey diagram illustrates migration flows between Austria’s federal states. The width of each flow represents the number of people relocating from one federal state to another, making it possible to identify the strongest migration connections and regional movement patterns.

The graph below shows the development of net migration for each federal state over time. By clicking on a federal state in the legend, individual lines can be shown or hidden. This allows users to examine individual federal states in detail and compare migration trends across multiple federal states.