Almost 7,000 new Austrians – where they come from

6,658 people were granted Austrian citizenship in the first half of 2023. This is a decrease of 18.3 percent.

The number of naturalisations in Austria is declining. In the first half of 2023, Austrian citizenship was granted to 6,658 people, including 833 (12.5 percent) residing abroad, Statistics Austria reported in a press release on Tuesday.

According to preliminary data, this means that there were 18.3 percent fewer naturalizations than in the first half of the previous year (8,154 naturalizations). “In the 1st half of 2023, the number of naturalizations fell by 6.658 percent to 18,3 compared to the same period last year. The decline is primarily attributable to the lower number of cases of naturalization of Nazi victims and their descendants reported to date. These accounted for 806 of the newly naturalized citizens in the 1st half of the year, which is 66.7 percent less than in the 1st half of 2022,” says Tobias Thomas, Director General of Statistics Austria.

The trend of increasing naturalisation numbers observed since 2016 – interrupted by the decline in the first year of the Corona pandemic in 2020 – thus did not continue for the time being. In the 806st half of 1, 2023 people were naturalized as politically persecuted persons and their descendants (§58c StbG), of whom 797 or 98.9 percent lived abroad.

In terms of naturalisations of persons residing in Austria, on the other hand, there was an increase of 1.2022 percent compared to the first half of 1. Almost a third of those naturalised in the 5st half of 1 were born in Austria (2023,1 or 886.28 per cent). Women accounted for half of the naturalisations in the 3st half of 1 (2023.50 per cent), while around one third were under 6-year-olds (18.33 per cent).

Around one third (2,156 or 32.4 percent) of the new Austrians were citizens of one of the following four countries before naturalization: Syria (864), Turkey (540), Bosnia and Herzegovina (390) and Afghanistan (362). In the 1st half of 2023, the persons naturalized under §58c were most frequently nationals of the following three states: Israel (244), United States (217) and United Kingdom (205).

In six federal states, more people were naturalized in the 1st half of 2023 than in the same period last year. The relative increases were highest in Burgenland (+25.9 percent), followed by Styria (+22.2 percent), Lower Austria (+21.7 percent) and Upper Austria (+14.8 percent).

There were fewer naturalisations in Vienna (−14.8 per cent), Salzburg (−14.0 per cent) and Carinthia (−3.8 per cent) compared to the 1st half of 2022. Almost two-thirds of all naturalisations in the 1st half of 2023 were made on the basis of a legal claim (4,355 persons). Among them, 2,816 persons were naturalised after at least six years of residence in Austria and for reasons worthy of particular consideration (e.g. proven German language skills and sustainable integration, birth in Austria, EEA citizenship or entitled to asylum, as well as politically persecuted persons and their descendants).

333 people received citizenship due to their marriage to an Austrian and 211 people due to a residence in Austria for at least 15 years and sustainable integration.