In the first nine months of this year, according to Statistics Austria, Austrian citizenship was awarded to a total of 6,971 people. There were 115 more naturalizations than in the same period of the previous year (+1.7 percent). The trend of increasing numbers of naturalization observed since 2011 thus continued.
With 2,447 people, more than one third of the naturalized persons were born in Austria (35.1 percent). Before naturalization, around one third of the new Austrians were citizens of one of the following four countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina (761), Turkey (588), Serbia (478) and Kosovo (429). More than half of all naturalized persons were women (54.4 percent), and the proportion of under-18s was 34.3 percent.
Growth in Burgenland highest
In six federal states, more persons were naturalized in the first three quarters of 2018 than in the same period of the previous year. Growth was most pronounced in Burgenland (+36.8 percent to 119 naturalizations), followed by Lower Austria (+25.4 percent to 1,164), Upper Austria (+7.6 percent to 853), Tyrol (+5.8 percent to 403), Carinthia (+4.5 percent to 279) and Vienna (+3.2 percent to 3,083). There was a decline in Styria (-15.5 percent to 541), in Vorarlberg (-18.7 percent to 261) and in Salzburg (-38.4 percent to 231).
Almost two-thirds of all naturalizations (59.4 percent or 4,138 people) in the first nine months of 2018 were due to a legal entitlement. Of these, 2,039 were naturalized after at least six years of residence in Austria and for reasons worthy of consideration (eg proven German and sustainable integration, EEA nationality, birth in Austria or entitled to asylum), 269 persons resident in Austria and Austria for at least 15 years sustainable integration.
536 persons were granted the Austrian citizenship due to the marriage with an Austrian or with an Austrian. Under the title extension of the ceremony, 237 spouses and 1,701 children were naturalized. Another 895 people or 12.8 percent were granted citizenship at their discretion, including 859 people after at least ten years of residence
