Austria Map: 9 States and 3 Regions

This Austria map shows the country’s 9 states (Bundesländer), grouped into 3 regions: Eastern, Southern and Western Austria. Austria had 9,215,956 residents on 1 January 2026 (Statistik Austria, counts published 29 June 2026). Vienna is the capital, and it is also one of the nine states. The states divide into 94 districts and 2,092 municipalities. Click a region or state to see its capital, population, area, languages, largest towns and UNESCO sites, or type any of the 2,092 municipalities into the search box to find its state.

How to use this map of Austria

Every region and state on the map is clickable.

• Explore a region: click or tap it to open its states, population, area, landmarks and food. Switch the Regions / States toggle to see the nine states on their own.
• Compare data: use View by to color the map by region, population, density, area, GDP per capita, UNESCO sites or dialect area. The dialect layer colors each municipality by its dialect group, so the line between Bavarian and Alemannic shows town by town.
• Find a town: type a place in the search box to see its state and region. It answers questions such as which state Hallstatt, Kitzbühel or Lienz is in.
• Print it: Printables has a labelled map of Austria, a blank map and a blank map with the three region colors, all in A4.
• Take the data: Export downloads all 9 states as CSV with a citation.

We publish the same kind of map for other countries: regions of Switzerland, regions of Italy, the regions of the Netherlands and the regions of Portugal. For the continent, see Europe, and for everything we have on the country, Austria.

Regions of Austria

Statistik Austria groups the nine states into three regions: Eastern Austria (Ostösterreich), Southern Austria (Südösterreich) and Western Austria (Westösterreich). They are the NUTS 1 level used for European statistics, and the nine states are NUTS 2. The three regions are statistical groupings with no government of their own, and they are not the tourist regions or dialect areas covered further down. Click a column heading to sort.

The East holds 44.2% of the population on 28.1% of the land, or 172.8 people per km². The South is the reverse: 20.0% of the people on 30.9% of the land, or 71.0 per km². The West sits between them with 35.8% of the people on 41.0% of the land. One state explains the East: Vienna alone has 22.1% of Austria’s population on 0.5% of its area, and Vienna together with Lower Austria has 40.9%.

The 3 regions one by one

Eastern Austria (Burgenland, Lower Austria, Vienna) has 4,072,150 people, the most of the three, and it grew the fastest, 4.2% between 2021 and 2026. It covers the Danube lowlands and the Pannonian plain, with Vienna at its center, the Wachau valley upriver and Lake Neusiedl on the Hungarian border. Its states produced 213,508 million euros in 2024, 43.2% of the nine-state total. The Danube runs through it, as it does through Upper Austria (rivers in Austria). Museums by state: Burgenland, Lower Austria and Vienna.

Southern Austria (Carinthia, Styria) has 1,841,754 people, the fewest of the three, and it grew the slowest, 1.8%. Both states border Slovenia. The region runs from the Hohe Tauern and the Dachstein down to the lakes of Carinthia, including the Wörthersee, and the wine hills of southern Styria. Graz (306,971) and Klagenfurt (105,734) are its two largest municipalities. Its GDP was 92,194 million euros in 2024, or 18.7% of the nine-state total. Museums by state: Carinthia and Styria.

Western Austria (Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg) has 3,302,052 people and the largest area, 34,388 km². It holds Linz (214,272), Salzburg (157,834), Innsbruck (132,820) and Dornbirn (52,252), the Alpine valleys of Tyrol and Salzburg, and Austria’s share of Lake Constance in Vorarlberg. Its GDP was 188,220 million euros in 2024, or 38.1% of the total. Museums by state: Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. For the whole country, see the complete list of museums in Austria.

All 9 states of Austria

The table lists every state with its ISO 3166-2 code, capital, region, population and area. Click a heading to sort, or a state name to open its card on the map. Population is the Statistik Austria count for 1 January 2026. Area is total area, including inland waters. The short labels drawn on the map (B, K, NOE, OOE, S, ST, T, V, W) are our own convention for labelling, not official abbreviations.

Austria covers 83,885 km² and had 9,215,956 residents on 1 January 2026, or 109.9 per km². That is 3.2% more than the 8,932,664 counted on 1 January 2021. Four states, Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Styria, hold 71.4% of the population. Between 1 January 2025 and 2026 the country added 18,743 people (0.2%), and only two states shrank: Carinthia by 105 and Burgenland by 95.

Capital of Austria and the state capitals

Vienna is the capital of Austria. It is the seat of the federal government and by far the largest municipality, with 2,040,914 residents, 6.6 times the size of Graz (306,971), the second largest. Each state has its own capital, and only one of the nine is not the state’s largest municipality.

Vorarlberg is the exception: Bregenz is the capital, and Dornbirn is larger. Eisenstadt is the smallest state capital. Burgenland chose it in 1925, after years of provisional seats, because Sopron, its designated capital, had stayed in Hungary. St. Pölten has been the capital of Lower Austria since 1986, and before that the state was governed from Vienna. The state of Salzburg and its capital share the name, and the official name of Klagenfurt is Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. The five largest municipalities of the country are Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck.

Does Austria have states or provinces?

Austria has nine states. The German word is Bundesländer, and English calls them states or federal states. The European Commission’s style guide uses “provinces”, which is why searches use both words. Austria is a federal republic. Each state has its own parliament (Landtag) and its own governor (Landeshauptmann), but no state courts: the constitution makes the judiciary a national matter, and criminal law, civil law and defense are national as well.

Below the states are 94 districts (Bezirke) and 2,092 municipalities (Gemeinden). Do not confuse Austria with Australia, whose own states and territories turn up in many searches for Austria’s states.

The 94 districts are 79 political districts plus 15 statutory cities (Statutarstädte), which are municipalities that also act as their own district: Eisenstadt, Rust, Krems, St. Pölten, Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Wiener Neustadt, Linz, Steyr, Wels, Salzburg, Graz, Klagenfurt, Villach, Innsbruck and Vienna. Rust, on Lake Neusiedl, has 1,918 residents and is the smallest. Lower Austria and Upper Austria together hold 48.3% of all municipalities. The average municipality has 4,405 residents, or 3,431 without Vienna.

Vienna: city, state and federal capital

Vienna is three things at once: the federal capital, a state and a municipality. The mayor is also the state governor, and the city council also sits as the state parliament. The two bodies keep separate meetings and separate presiding officers. Vienna is the smallest state at 414.82 km² and the densest at 4,920 people per km², and Lower Austria surrounds it completely.

Its status as a state dates from the separation from Lower Austria. The federal constitution of 10 November 1920 provided for Vienna as a state of its own, but Vienna and the rest of Lower Austria (Niederösterreich-Land) were run under a joint provincial constitution until the end of 1921. The separation law took effect on 1 January 1922, which is the date usually given for Vienna’s founding as a state.

The state is also a municipality, so the map divides it into its 23 districts (Gemeindebezirke) for the town search. The five largest are Donaustadt (235,361), Favoriten (225,013), Floridsdorf (191,527), Liesing (124,846) and Leopoldstadt (114,122). Donaustadt and Favoriten each have more residents than Linz. Vienna International Airport is not in Vienna: it sits in Schwechat, in Lower Austria. See the airports in Austria. For museums in the city itself, see museums in Vienna (city).

Largest, smallest and densest states

The biggest state by area and the biggest by population are different states. Lower Austria covers 22.9% of the country, Vienna 0.5%. Styria (16,400.10 km²) and Tyrol (12,648.52 km²) follow Lower Austria in area. Vorarlberg, at 2,601.68 km², is smaller than Burgenland (3,965.21 km²) but has 110,612 more people. That makes it the densest state after Vienna, at 158.5 people per km², ahead of Upper Austria (128.3) and Lower Austria (90.2). Areas are Statistik Austria’s totals including inland waters. Other sources differ in the last digits: Wikipedia gives Lower Austria 19,186 km² and Styria 16,399.

GDP per capita by state

Salzburg has the highest GDP per capita, EUR 65,800 in 2024, followed by Vienna (EUR 61,900), Tyrol (EUR 57,700) and Vorarlberg (EUR 56,500). Burgenland has the lowest, EUR 39,000, which is 59% of Salzburg’s. The figures are Statistik Austria’s regional accounts for 2024 in current euros, rounded to 100, and they are provisional.

Output is credited to the state where it is produced and divided by the state’s residents. Vienna and Salzburg, which draw commuters from outside their borders, come out higher than a resident-based measure would show. The Austria figure is our calculation: the nine states’ combined GDP divided by their population. The GDP layer maps all nine. For wealth at the city level, see the richest cities in Austria.

Languages and dialects by state

German is the official language of Austria. Slovene is also official in the mixed-language districts of southern Carinthia, and Croatian and Hungarian are official alongside German in designated districts and municipalities of Burgenland. The European Commission lists the recognised minority languages as Hungarian, Slovene, Burgenland Croatian, Czech, Slovak and Romani. Czech, Slovak and Romani have no official status in any state. In Croatian and Hungarian, Burgenland is Gradišće and Őrvidék, and in Slovene, Carinthia is Koroška. The town search accepts the Slovene names Celovec for Klagenfurt and Beljak for Villach, and the Hungarian Kismarton for Eisenstadt. For more, see indigenous languages in Austria.

Dialects follow a different pattern. Bavarian dialects are spoken in every state except Vorarlberg, which speaks Alemannic, but the Alemannic area also reaches into Tyrol. The dialect layer sorts the 2,092 municipalities into five groups: Central Bavarian (970 municipalities), South-Central Bavarian (637), Southern Bavarian (362), Alemannic (118) and a five-municipality Alemannic-Bavarian transition around St. Anton am Arlberg and the Paznaun valley, including Ischgl.

Alemannic is therefore not “Vorarlberg only”. In Tyrol it covers 22 municipalities in the Reutte district, where the dialect is Swabian-Alemannic around Reutte, in Jungholz and in the Tannheimer Tal, and Highest Alemannic (the Walser dialect) in Steeg, as it is in Lech and Warth in Vorarlberg. The layer is a coarse classification built from published descriptions, not a survey, and dialects shade into one another, so every border on it is approximate. Our guide to dialects in Austria goes through them state by state.

Salzkammergut, East Tyrol and the historic quarters

Some of the best-known names on an Austria map are not states. The Salzkammergut is a lake and mountain region with no administrative status and no fixed border, and it spans three states. Hallstatt, Gmunden, Bad Ischl and Gosau are in Upper Austria, Bad Aussee and Altaussee in Styria, and St. Gilgen in Salzburg. Depending on the definition it counts roughly 50 to 60 municipalities. The UNESCO core zone of Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut, about 285 km², lies in Upper Austria and Styria. Salzburg holds only buffer-zone land, 5.30% of core and buffer together. See the lakes in Austria.

Tyrol is in pieces. North Tyrol and East Tyrol are not connected: the state of Salzburg and the Italian province of South Tyrol lie between them. South Tyrol and Trentino went to Italy in 1919 under the Treaty of Saint-Germain. East Tyrol (Lienz, 12,105 residents) stayed with Austria. The map draws a third piece, Jungholz, a municipality of 301 people that touches the rest of Tyrol at a single point and is otherwise surrounded by Germany.

Inside the states, older names survive as regions. They are not administrative, and the boundaries are approximate. Statistik Austria reuses many of them as NUTS 3 names.

UNESCO World Heritage sites by state

Austria has 12 UNESCO World Heritage properties, and none were added in 2025 or 2026. A property counts in every state whose territory holds part of its core zone, so the state lists add up to 18 entries. Lower Austria has 5, Upper Austria 4, Vienna 3, Styria 3, and Salzburg, Carinthia and Burgenland 1 each. Tyrol and Vorarlberg have none.

The UNESCO layer counts the sites per state, and the full list with visiting notes is in World Heritage sites in Austria.

Which state is it in? Popular places

Search a town on the map to see its state and region. These are the places visitors ask about most, and a few are not where the name suggests.

Hallstatt is in Upper Austria, not in Salzburg, although it is often placed there. Salzburg is both a state and a city, and the city is in the state. Museums by city: Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz and Linz.

How the map took shape, 976 to 2026

The nine states have kept their shape since 1922. The 2,092 municipalities change more often: the last merger in Tyrol was Matrei am Brenner, Mühlbachl and Pfons on 1 January 2022, and the last district merger was in Lower Austria in 2017.

Austria’s neighbors

Austria is landlocked and borders eight countries. Every state except Vienna has a land border with at least one of them.

Our lists cover the neighbors from the other side: countries that border Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Liechtenstein. Austria is one of the landlocked countries of Europe. It is in the Schengen Area, so days spent there count toward the 90/180 rule in our Schengen calculator.

Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Austria?

Vienna is the capital of Austria. It has 2,040,914 residents, 22.1% of the national population, and it is also one of the nine states. Vienna sits in the east of the country on the Danube and is surrounded by the state of Lower Austria. The second largest city is Graz, with 306,971.

How many states does Austria have, and which is the newest?

Austria has 9 states. Burgenland is the newest addition to the territory, transferred from Hungary in 1921. Vienna became fully separate from Lower Austria when the separation law took effect on 1 January 1922. Carinthia, dated to 976, is the oldest of the nine.

Is Vienna a city or a state?

Both. Vienna is the federal capital, a state and a municipality at once. The mayor is also the state governor, and the city council also acts as the state parliament. With 414.82 km² it is the smallest of the nine states, and Lower Austria completely surrounds it.

Which state is Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz or Linz in?

Salzburg is the capital of the state of Salzburg. Innsbruck is the capital of Tyrol, Graz the capital of Styria and Linz the capital of Upper Austria. Klagenfurt is the capital of Carinthia, Bregenz of Vorarlberg, Eisenstadt of Burgenland and St. Pölten of Lower Austria. Type any other town in the search box.

Which state is Hallstatt in?

Hallstatt is in Upper Austria, in the Salzkammergut lake district, and not in the state of Salzburg. Its municipality has 741 residents. The village gives its name to the Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut UNESCO site, whose core zone lies in Upper Austria and Styria.

Which Austrian state is the biggest, the smallest and the most populous?

Lower Austria is the biggest, with 19,180.10 km². Vienna is the smallest, with 414.82 km², and the most populous, with 2,040,914 people. Burgenland has the fewest people, 301,695. Vienna is also the densest state, and Carinthia is the sparsest, with 59.8 people per km².

What are the 3 regions of Austria, and how do they differ from tourist regions?

The three regions are Eastern, Southern and Western Austria, the NUTS 1 groupings used for statistics: the East has Burgenland, Lower Austria and Vienna, the South has Carinthia and Styria, and the West has the other four states. They have no government. Tourist regions such as the Salzkammergut or the Tyrolean valleys follow other boundaries.

Which states does the Salzkammergut cover?

The Salzkammergut covers parts of three states: Upper Austria, which holds most of it, Styria around Bad Aussee and Altaussee, and Salzburg around St. Gilgen. It has no fixed administrative border. The UNESCO core zone, about 285 km², lies in Upper Austria and Styria.

What languages are spoken in Austria besides German?

Slovene is official in the mixed-language districts of southern Carinthia, and Croatian and Hungarian in designated districts of Burgenland. Czech, Slovak and Romani are recognised minority languages without official status. Austrians also speak Bavarian and Alemannic dialects at home, and sign language is recognised too.

Where is the line between Bavarian and Alemannic dialects?

Alemannic is spoken in all of Vorarlberg and in parts of the Reutte district of Tyrol, including Reutte, Jungholz and the Tannheimer Tal. Bavarian dialects cover the rest of the country. In between, the Paznaun valley and St. Anton am Arlberg form a transition zone, and the upper Lech valley around Steeg is Highest Alemannic.

Why is East Tyrol cut off from the rest of Tyrol?

The state of Salzburg and the Italian province of South Tyrol lie between North Tyrol and East Tyrol. South Tyrol was part of Tyrol until 1919, when it was ceded to Italy under the Treaty of Saint-Germain. East Tyrol, around Lienz, stayed with Austria, which left Tyrol in two parts.

Which countries border Austria?

Austria borders eight countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Germany touches four Austrian states. Austria has no coast, and Lake Constance and Lake Neusiedl are its two border lakes in the west and east.

Sources and methodology

• Population: Statistik Austria, population at the start of 2026, final counts by municipality updated 29 June 2026 and summed to the states, with 1 January 2021 as the base for five-year change. The nine states sum to 9,215,956. Vienna is the sum of its 23 districts. Earlier provisional releases give slightly different figures, such as 2,042,036 for Vienna.
• Area, districts and municipalities: Statistik Austria, Gemeindeverzeichnis 2026, territorial status 1 January 2026. Area includes inland waters, and Statistik Austria publishes no separate land area by state. Density is population divided by total area. The areas agree within 1 km² with the BEV table published by the Austrian Economic Chamber and within 0.3% with the area of the map polygons.
• Regions: the NUTS 1 regions Ostösterreich, Südösterreich and Westösterreich, as used by Statistik Austria and Eurostat. Region figures are sums of the member states.
• GDP per capita: Statistik Austria, regional accounts (ESVG 2010), 2024, current euros, rounded to 100, published 9 December 2025 and provisional. Dividing each state’s GDP by its per-capita value recovers its population within 0.12%. The Austria figure of EUR 53,800 is derived from the nine states.
• Boundaries: Statistik Austria municipality and district boundaries (CC BY 4.0), simplified for display. Lakes are OpenStreetMap outlines (ODbL). Lake Constance has no legally defined Austrian share, so the map draws it as one body of water outside every state. Lake Neusiedl is cut at the Hungarian border.
• UNESCO: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 12 properties, checked on 1 November 2026. Serial and shared properties are placed by their component sites, and a state counts only when it holds part of the core zone, so the buffer-only land of Hallstatt-Dachstein in Salzburg is not counted.
• Dialect layer: built by 33travels from the German Wikipedia articles on the Bavarian and Alemannic dialects and the Lechtal and Außerfern, plus E. Rudolf, Die Mundart im Außerfern (1934), and E. Gabriel on the Vorarlberg-Allgäu language border. Most municipalities take the rule for their district or state, 33 are named in a source and 205 are inferred from neighbors, including 157 in Styria. Sources conflict on the Salzburg Flachgau and on Lermoos, Ehrwald and Biberwier, and the layer follows the more specific source.
• Languages: official status from the European Commission as summarized in Wikipedia’s articles on the languages of Austria, Burgenland Croats and Slovene in Austria (facts only).
• History: Wikipedia (English and German) articles on the states and on Vienna, and the Statistik Austria change list of 12 October 2026 for municipal mergers.
• Towns: populations of the five largest municipalities per state are Statistik Austria figures for 1 January 2026, with coordinates from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).

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