Upper-Austria

Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg. With an area of and 1.49 million inhabitants, Upper Austria is the fourth-largest Austrian state by land area and the third-largest by population.

History

Origins

For a long period of the Middle Ages, much of what would become Upper Austria constituted Traungau, a region of the Duchy of Bavaria. In the mid-13th century, it became known as the Principality above the Enns River ('), this name being first recorded in 1264. (At the time, the term "Upper Austria" also included Tyrol and various scattered Habsburg possessions in South Germany.)

Early modern era

In 1490, the area was given a measure of independence within the Holy Roman Empire, with the status of a principality. By 1550, there was a Protestant majority. In 1564, Upper Austria, together with Lower Austria and the Bohemian territories, fell under Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II.

At the start of the 17th century, the counter-reformation was instituted under Emperor Rudolf II and his successor Matthias. After a military campaign, the area was under the control of Bavaria for some years in the early 17th century.

The Innviertel was ceded from the Electorate of Bavaria to Upper Austria in the Treaty of Teschen in 1779. During the Napoleonic Wars, Upper Austria was occupied by the French army on more than one occasion.

20th century

In 1918, after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the name ''Oberösterreich'' was used to describe the province of the new Austria. After Austria was annexed by Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator, who had been born in the Upper Austrian town of Braunau am Inn and raised in Upper Austria, Upper Austria became Reichsgau Oberdonau, although this also included the southern part of the Sudetenland, annexed from Czechoslovakia, and a small part of Styria. In 1945, Upper Austria was partitioned between the American zone to the south and the Soviet zone to the north.

Today, Upper Austria is Austria's leading industrial region. As of 2009, it accounted for approximately a quarter of the country's exports.

Demographics

As of January 1, 2021, 1,495,608 people resided in the state, of which 107,318 (7.17%) were EU/ EEA/ CH/ UK citizens and 96,623 (6.46%) were third-country nationals. The majority of the immigrant population in recent decades has come from Germany, Southeastern Europe, and Turkey, with 1.77% from Germany, 1.48% from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1.19% from Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo, and 1.03% from Turkey. Due to the large wave of refugees since the second half of 2015, the number of people from Afghanistan has increased to 6,721 (0.45%) and from Syria to 6,023 (0.4%). The Mühlviertel has been inhabited by a few hundred Sinti since the Middle Ages, very few of whom actually profess to belong to their ethnic group in censuses.

The majority of Upper Austrians are Christian: in 2001, 79.4% of the people still belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, about 4.4% were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 4.0% where Muslims and 8.8% were of no confession. By the end of 2020, the proportion of Catholics had fallen to 62%, while the corresponding proportion of Protestants was about 3.1% of the Upper Austrian population.

Population development

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1)

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:30
PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:1500
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
AlignBars = late
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:25 start:0
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PlotData=
color:skyblue width:22 shift:(-60,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till
bar:1527 from:0 till:335 text:335,000
bar:1600 from:0 till:380 text:380,000
bar:1700 from:0 till:450 text:450,000
bar:1754 from:0 till:526 text:526,000
bar:1780 from:0 till:601 text:601,000
bar:1790 from:0 till:623 text:623,000
bar:1800 from:0 till:626 text:626,000
bar:1810 from:0 till:630 text:630,000
bar:1821 from:0 till:652 text:651,911
bar:1830 from:0 till:682 text:682,140
bar:1840 from:0 till:699 text:699,324
bar:1850 from:0 till:706 text:706,316
bar:1857 from:0 till:707 text:707,450
bar:1869 from:0 till:737 text:736,856
bar:1880 from:0 till:760 text:760,091
bar:1890 from:0 till:786 text:786,496
bar:1900 from:0 till:811 text:810,854
bar:1910 from:0 till:854 text:853,595
bar:1923 from:0 till:877 text:876,698
bar:1934 from:0 till:903 text:902,965
bar:1939 from:0 till:928 text:927,583
bar:1951 from:0 till:1109 text:1,108,720
bar:1961 from:0 till:1132 text:1,131,623
bar:1971 from:0 till:1230 text:1,229,972
bar:1981 from:0 till:1270 text:1,269,545
bar:1991 from:0 till:1333 text:1,333,480
bar:2001 from:0 till:1377 text:1,376,797
bar:2011 from:0 till:1413 text:1,412,640
bar:2021 from:0 till:1496 text:1,495,608

TextData=
fontsize:M pos:(35,20)
text:"Source: Statistik Austria"

Economy

The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the state was 65.9 billion € in 2018, accounting for 17.1% of the Austria's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 39,500 € or 131% of the EU27 average in the same year.

Politics

The Upper Austrian state constitution defines Upper Austria as an independent state of the democratic Republic of Austria. In its constitution, Upper Austria also declares its support for a united Europe that is committed to democratic, constitutional, social and federal principles as well as the principle of subsidiarity, preserves the autonomy of the regions and ensures their participation in European decision-making. In its regional constitution, Upper Austria defines its position in Europe as an independent, future-oriented and self-confident region that participates in the further development of a united Europe.https://www.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at/files/publikationen/Verf_schriftenreihe_Nr1.pdf

Like Styria, Upper Austria is a swing state that usually has a signal character in nationwide elections. The conservative Austrian People's Party dominates in rural areas, the Social Democratic Party of Austria has its strongholds in the cities of Linz, Wels and Steyr or in the Attnang-Puchheim railroad junction, but the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria has also traditionally had a strong presence, for example in the Innviertel.

Administrative divisions

Administratively, the state is divided into 15 districts ('' Bezirke''), three Statutarstädte and 438 municipalities.

Statutory cities

# Linz
#Steyr
# Wels

Districts

#

Braunau am Inn
# Eferding
#Freistadt
#Gmunden
#Grieskirchen
# Kirchdorf an der Krems
# Linz-Land
# Perg
# Ried im Innkreis
# Rohrbach
# Schärding
# Steyr-Land
# Urfahr-Umgebung
# Vöcklabruck
# Wels-Land

Historical regions

Historically, Upper Austria was traditionally divided into four ''viertel'' or regions: Hausruckviertel, Innviertel, Mühlviertel, and Traunviertel.

Today these do not exist as administrative regions, but are often still spoken about and referred to: for instance, as the term for the local language dialect (e.g. ''Innviertlerisch''), as the term for the local regional cuisine (e.g. ''Innviertler Küche''), or in regional tourism campaigns (e.g
s'Innviertel
.

See also

* Ausee
* Austro-Bavarian language
* Gosauseen
* Höllerersee
* Linz

Notes

External links

Upper Austria official website

{{Authority control

NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union
States of Austria