Formal Name: Republic of Austria.

Short Form: Austria.

Term for Citizens: Austrian(s).

Capital: Vienna.

Provinces: Upper Austria (Oberösterreich), Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), Styria (Steiermark), Carinthia (Kärnten), Salzburg, Tirol, Vorarlberg, Burgenland, and Vienna (Wien).

Location: Central Europe, north of Italy and Slovenia; south of Germany and the Czech Republic; east of Switzerland and Lichtenstein; west of Slovakia and Hungary.

Geographic Coordinates: 47 20 N, 13 20 E

Size: Approximately 51,993 square miles (83,859 square kilometers), slightly smaller in size than the states of Maine.
land: 51,298 square miles
water:    694 square miles
total: 51,993 square miles

Boundaries: Austria, a landlocked country, shares national borders with Switzerland and the tiny principality of Liechtenstein to the west (124 miles together), Germany (486 miles) and the Czech Republic and Slovakia (352 miles together) to the north, Hungary to the east (215 miles), and Slovenia (193 miles) and Italy (267 miles) to the south.

Topography: Most of the country is Alpine or sub-Alpine; heavily wooded mountains and hills cut by valleys of fast-flowing rivers. Plains around Vienna and Danube Valley in northeast only lowland areas and contain most of population. Danube, flowing east through northern provinces and Vienna, principal river. Of total area, 20 percent arable land, 29 percent pasture, 44 percent forest, and 7 percent barren.

Elevation Extremes:
lowest point:       378 feet (Neusiedler See)
highest point: 12,467 feet (Grossglockner)

Climate: Continental weather systems predominate; temperatures and rainfall vary with altitude. Temperate, cloudy, cold winters with frequent rain in lowlands and snow in mountains; cool summers with occasional showers. Humidity highest in wetter western regions, diminishing toward east.

Land use: (1996 estimates)
arable land: 17%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 23%
forests and woodland: 39%
other: 20%

The two best-known features of the Austrian landscape are the Alps and the Danube River. The Danube has its source in southwestern Germany and flows through Austria before emptying into the Black Sea. It is the only major European river that flows eastward, and its importance as an inland waterway has been enhanced by the completion in 1992 of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in Bavaria, which connects the Rhine and Main rivers with the Danube and makes possible barge traffic from the North Sea to the Black Sea.

The major rivers north of the watershed of the Austrian Alps (the Inn in Tirol, the Salzach in Salzburg, and the Enns in Styria and Upper Austria) are direct tributaries of the Danube and flow north into the Danube Valley, whereas the rivers south of the watershed in central and eastern Austria (the Gail and Drau rivers in Carinthia and the Mürz and Mur rivers in Styria) flow south into the drainage system of the Drau, which eventually empties into the Danube in Serbia. Consequently, central and eastern Austria are geographically oriented away from the watershed of the Alps: the provinces of Upper Austria and Lower Austria toward the Danube and the provinces of Carinthia and Styria toward the Drau.

The Alps cover 62 percent of the country's total area. Three major Alpine ranges--the Northern Alps, Central Alps, and Southern Alps--run west to east through Austria. The Central Alps, which consist largely of a granite base, are the largest and highest ranges in Austria. The Central Alps run from Tirol to approximately the Styria-Lower Austria border and include areas that are permanently glaciated in the Ötzal Alps on the TiroleanItalian border and the High Tauern in eastern Tirol and Carinthia. The Northern Alps, which run from Vorarlberg through Tirol into Salzburg along the German border and through Upper Austria and Lower Austria toward Vienna, and the Southern Alps, on the Carinthia-Slovenia border, are predominantly limestone and dolomite. At 3,797 meters, Grossglockner in Carinthia is the highest mountain in Austria. As a general rule, the farther east the Northern Alps and Central Alps run, the lower they become. The altitude of the mountains also drops north and south of the central ranges.

As a geographic feature, the Alps literally overshadow other landform regions. Just over 28 percent of Austria is moderately hilly or flat: the Northern Alpine Foreland, which includes the Danube Valley; the lowlands and hilly regions in northeastern and eastern Austria, which include the Danube Basin; and the rolling hills and lowlands of the Southeastern Alpine Foreland. The parts of Austria that are most suitable for settlement--that is, arable and climatically favorable--run north of the Alps through the provinces of Upper Austria and Lower Austria in the Danube Valley and then curve east and south of the Alps through Lower Austria, Vienna, Burgenland, and Styria. Austria's least mountainous landscape is southeast of the low Leitha Range, which forms the southern lip of the Viennese Basin, where the steppe of the Hungarian Plain begins. The Bohemian Granite Massif, a low mountain range with bare and windswept plateaus and a harsh climate, is located north of the Danube Valley and covers the remaining 10 percent of Austria's area.

Environment (current issues):
There is some forest degradation caused by air and soil pollution.  Soil pollution results from the use of agricultural chemicals.  Air pollution results from emissions by coal- and oil-fired power stations and industrial plants and from trucks transiting Austria between northern and southern Europe.

Austria is a party to numerous international agreements, including:
Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol.

Population: 8,139,299 (July 1999 estimate)

Age Structure:
0-14 years: 17% (male 702,261; female 666,310)
15-64 years: 68% (male 2,792,484; female 2,713,397)
65 years and over: 15% (male 478,071; female 786,776) (1999 est.)

Population Growth Rate: 0.09% (1999 estimate)

Birth Rate: 9.62 births/1,000 population (1999 estimate)

Death Rate: 10.04 deaths/1,000 population (1999 estimate)

Net Migration Rate: 1.32 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1999 estimate)

Sex Ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female
total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (1999 estimate)

Infant Mortality Rate: 5.1 deaths/1,000 live births (1999 estimate)

Life Expectancy at Birth:
total population: 77.48 years
male: 74.31 years
female: 80.82 years (1999 estimate)

Total Fertility Rate: 1.37 children born/woman (1999 estimate)

Nationality:
noun: Austrian(s)
adjective: Austrian

Ethnic Groups: German 99.4%, Croatian 0.3%, Slovene 0.2%, other 0.1%

Religions: Roman Catholic 78%, Protestant 5%, other 17%

Literacy: defined as the ability to read and write functionally at or above the age of 15
total population: 99% (1974 estimate)

Population: 8,139,299 (July 1999 estimate)

Languages: German (spoken by 99% of the native-born population), Serbo-Croatian or Slovenian (spoken by small minorities), English (spoken as an unofficial second language).

Religion: Of native-born and foreign-born population combined, about 78 percent Roman Catholic, 5 percent Protestant, 8 percent other (includes Jewish, Muslim, and Orthodox), and 9 percent no denomination.

Education: Public elementary, secondary, and higher education free; nine years compulsory. By ninth year, students usually in preuniversity academic schools or vocational education. Literacy 99 percent for population over age fifteen.

Health and Welfare: Social insurance covers all wageearners and salaried employees, self-employed workers, and dependents. Coverage compulsory. State-required health insurance covers 99 percent of population. In 1990 average life expectancy almost seventy-six years (seventy-two for males and seventy-nine for females).

Gross National Product (GNP): US$174.8 billion in 1992 with 2 percent growth rate; US$22,110 per capita with 2.4 percent growth rate.

Agriculture and Forestry: Agriculture and forestry accounted for 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 7.4 percent of labor force in 1991. Principal crops: grains, fruit, potatoes, sugar beets, sawn wood, cattle, pigs, and poultry. About 80 to 90 percent self-sufficient in food.

Industry: Major sector with 36.3 percent of GDP and 36.9 percent of employment in 1991.

Services: Services accounted for 60.9 percent of GDP and 55.8 percent of employment in 1991. Largest growth sector; 10 percent growth in share of GDP and 14 percent growth in share of labor force since 1970.

Major Trading Partners: Most trade with European Union (EU). Germany largest single trading partner (in 1993 accounted for 38.9 percent of exports and 41.5 percent of imports), followed by Italy and Switzerland.

Imports: US$48.6 billion in 1993. Major imports: machinery and equipment, manufacturing products, chemical products, fuels and energy, and foodstuffs.

Exports: US$40.2 billion in 1993. Major exports: machinery and equipment, paper and paper products, transport equipment, metal manufactures, and textiles and clothing.

Balance of Payments: Current account deficit US$900 million in 1993. Persistent trade deficit. Per capita income from tourism strongest in world; helps balance deficit.

General Economic Conditions: Stable economy with generally good rates of growth; high living standards, comparable with other countries of Western Europe. In 1992 real GDP growth 1.6 percent, inflation 4.1 percent, and unemployment 5.9 percent; in 1993 real GDP growth -0.3 percent, inflation 3.6 percent, and unemployment 6.8 percent.

Currency and Exchange Rate: Schilling. In March 1994, exchange rate US$1 = S12.1.

Land-use patterns in Austria change from Alpine to non-Alpine regions. Approximately one-tenth of Austria is barren or unproductive, that is, extremely Alpine or above the tree line. Just over two-fifths of Austria is covered by forests, the majority of which are in Alpine regions. Less than one-fifth of Austria is arable and suitable for conventional agriculture. The percentage of arable land in Austria increases in the east as the country becomes less Alpine. More than one-fifth of Austria is pastures and meadows located at varying altitudes. Almost onehalf of this grassland consists of high-lying Alpine pastures.

Historically, high Alpine pastures have been used during the summer for grazing dairy cattle, thus making space available at lower altitudes for cultivating and harvesting fodder for winter. Many of the high pastures are at altitudes of more than 1,000 meters.

Although agriculture in mountainous areas was at one time economically viable, in recent decades it has survived only with the help of extensive subsidies. A concern of farmers in these mountainous regions is that membership in the European Union (EU) might entail a curtailment of these subsidies and the end of Alpine agriculture. If this occurs, many areas will be reclaimed by nature after centuries of cultivation.

Although the Alps are beautiful, they make many areas of Austria uninhabitable. Austria's so-called areas of permanent settlement--regions that are cultivated, continuously inhabited, and used for transportation, but do not include forests, Alpine pastures, or barren land--cover only four-tenths or 21,700 square miles (35,000 square kilometers) of the country. The great majority of the area of permanent settlement is in the Danube Valley and the lowlands or hilly regions north, east, and south of the Alps, where approximately two-thirds of the population live.

In the country's predominantly Alpine provinces, most of the population live in river valleys: Bregenz on the shores of Lake Constance in Vorarlberg; Innsbruck on the Inn River in Tirol; Salzburg on the Salzach River in Salzburg; and Klagenfurt on the Gail River in Carinthia. The higher the Alps are, the less inhabitable they become in terms of soil, microclimate, and vegetation. Conversely, the lower and broader the Alpine valleys are, the more densely populated they become.

Tirol illustrates most clearly the relationship between Alpine geography and habitation. As the most mountainous province (less than 3 percent of the land is arable), it is the most sparsely inhabited, with an area of permanent settlement of only 15 percent.

Because of the Alps, the country as a whole is one of the least densely populated states of Western and Central Europe. With fifty-eight inhabitants per square mile, Austria has a population density similar to that of the former Yugoslavia.

Austria's national borders and geography have corresponded very little. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, the Alps and the Danube have not served to mark political boundaries. Even within Austria, provincial borders were only occasionally set by the ranges and ridges of the Alps.

Although the Alps did not mark political boundaries, they often separated groups of people from one another. Because in the past the Alps were impassable, inhabitants isolated in valleys or networks of valleys developed distinct regional subcultures. Consequently, the inhabitants of one valley frequently maintained dialects, native or traditional dress, architectural styles, and folklore that substantially differed from those of the next valley. Differences were great enough that the origins of outsiders could easily be identified. However, mass media, mobility, prosperity, and tourism have eroded the distinctness of Alpine regional subcultures to a great extent by reducing the isolation that gave them their particular character.

Despite the Alps, Austria has historically been a land of transit. The Danube Valley, for centuries Central Europe's aquatic link to the Balkan Peninsula and the "Orient" in the broadest sense of the word, has always been an avenue of eastwest transit. However, Europe's division into two opposing economic and military blocs after World War II diminished Austria's importance as a place of transit. Since the opening of Eastern Europe in 1989, the country has begun to reassume its historical role. By the early 1990s, it had already experienced a substantial increase in the number of people and vehicles crossing its eastern frontiers.

Within the Alps, four passes and the roads that run through them are of particular importance for north-south transit. The Semmering Pass on the provincial border of Lower Austria and Styria connects the Viennese Basin with the Mürz and Mur valleys, thus providing northeast-southwest access to Styria and Slovenia, and, via Carinthia, to Italy.

The Phryn Pass between the provinces of Upper Austria and Styria and the Tauern Pass between the High Tauern Range and the Low Tauern Range of the Central Alps in Salzburg, provide access to the Mur Valley in Styria and the Drau Valley in Carinthia, respectively. The highways that run through these passes are important northwest-southeast lines of communication through the Alps. The Phyrn highway has been nicknamed the "foreign workers' route" because millions of "guest workers" in Germany use it to return to their homes in the Balkans and Turkey for vacation. Many Germans and northern Europeans also use it in the summer months to reach the Adriatic coast. After the outbreak of hostilities in Yugoslavia in the summer of 1991, however, a substantial amount of this traffic was rerouted through the Danube Valley and Hungary.

The most important pass in the Austrian Alps is the Brenner Pass, located on the Austrian-Italian border in Tirol. At 1,370 meters, it is one of the lowest Alpine passes. The Inn Valley and the Brenner Pass historically have been an important and convenient route of north-south transit between Germany and Italy, and they provide the most direct route between Europe's two most highly industrialized regions--Germany and northern Italy.

The Alps serve as a watershed for Europe's three major kinds of weather systems that influence Austrian weather. The Atlantic maritime climate from the northwest is characterized by lowpressure fronts, mild air from the Gulf Stream, and precipitation. It has the greatest influence on the northern slopes of the Alps, the Northern Alpine Foreland, and the Danube Valley. The continental climate is characterized by low-pressure fronts with precipitation in summer and high-pressure systems with cold and dry air in winter. It affects mainly eastern Austria. Mediterranean high-pressure systems from the south are characterized by few clouds and warm air, and they influence the weather of the southern slopes of the Alps and that of the Southeastern Alpine Foreland, making them the most temperate part of Austria.

One peculiarity of the Mediterranean weather systems is the föhn, a warm air mass that originates in the African Sahara and moves north rapidly, periodically raising temperatures up to 10°C in a short period of time. Many people respond to this rapid weather change with headaches, irritability, and circulatory problems. During the winter, the rapid warming that accompanies a föhn can thaw the snow cover in the Alps to such an extent that avalanches occur.

Given the importance of Alpine skiing for the Austrian tourist industry, December is the month during which the weather is watched with the greatest anticipation. As a rule, Atlantic maritime weather systems bring snow, and continental weather systems help keep it. However, a predominance of cold, dry continental systems or warm Mediterranean ones inevitably postpone the beginning of the ski season. In the summer, Mediterranean high-pressure systems bring warm, sunny weather.

Between 1900 and 1991, the country's population grew from 6,004,000 to 7,795,800. War deaths and birth deficits during each of the world wars and the consequences of the Great Depression profoundly influenced the development of Austria's population. Approximately 190,000 men were killed in action in World War I. Increased mortality among the civilian population as a result of the hardships of war and the immediate postwar period and extremely low birth rates resulted in a population decrease of 100,000 between the censuses of 1910 and 1923. Postwar immigration of German-speaking and Jewish populations from the successor states of Austria-Hungary to the Republic of Austria and emigration from Austria after the war basically offset each other. Economic and political crises in the 1930s caused 72,000 Austrians to emigrate to non-European countries. The largest contingent of emigrants, 37,000, were from the province of Burgenland and went primarily to the United States, mainly for economic reasons.

After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938, an estimated 130,000 Austrians, the great majority of whom had Jewish origins, emigrated from Austria. More than 65,000 Austrian Jews died in the concentration camps and prisons of the Third Reich; 35,000 non-Jewish Austrians shared a similar fate or were executed after trials. An estimated 250,000 Austrians were killed in action during World War II; 25,000 civilians were killed as a result of bombing or military action in Austria. Some of these losses were offset by Nazi population policies that promoted motherhood and large families for racial reasons.

After the war, Austria became a destination for ethnic Germans, who fled from or were driven out of their homes in Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Other refugees and "displaced persons," who were either uprooted by hostilities or victims of the expulsions sanctioned by the Allies and carried out by East European governments immediately after the war, also came to Austria. Between 1945 and 1950, about 400,000 immigrants- -ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and otheer non-German speaking refugees--settled in Austria and eventually became Austrian citizens.

The increase of birth rates in Austria during the 1950s corresponded with the trends in most other West European countries. Between 1950 and 1992, the infant mortality rate in Austria dropped from over 61.3 per 1,000 live births to 7.5 per 1,000, an indication of improvements Austrian health authorities had made in prenatal and postnatal care. During the 1960s, Austria experienced an unprecedented population growth related to an increase of births over deaths and a large influx of foreign workers. After the mid-1960s, however, there was a substantial and continuous drop in the fertility and birth rates in Austria, generally referred to as the "pill drop-off." In 1974 this trend was further influenced by the legalization of abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. Since the mid-1970s, Austria--after Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)--has had the third lowest fertility rate in the world: 1.44 children per woman in 1990, a rate substantially lower than the replacement rate of 2.09.

In the early 1980s, some demographers predicted that the population of Austria would decline from 7.5 million to its 1965 level of 7.25 million by 2010. This scenario was substantially revised when in the mid-1980s Austria's population experienced a spurt of dramatic growth. Projections in 1990 anticipated a net growth of Austria's population by 500,000 to 8 million by 2010. An increase in immigration and the higher fertility rate of foreign workers accounted for the greatest part of Austria's net population growth in the early 1990s.

Within Austria there are substantial variations in regional patterns of population growth among the indigenous population, in contrast to the immigrant or foreign population. After World War II, Austria's eastern provinces--Lower Austria, Vienna, and Burgenland--had lower rates of fertility than the other provinces in the country. Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, there was a clear "east-west watershed" in population growth. The west had higher rates of fertility, while the east's lower rates of fertility led to a stagnating or declining population. The economic and social reasons for these patterns of development were complex and included the Soviet occupation of eastern Austria from 1945 to 1955 and the depopulation of regions along the Iron Curtain, the traditionally weak economic infrastructure of predominantly rural areas in eastern and southeastern Austria, and the conservatism and deeply rooted Roman Catholicism of western Austria.

In 1970 the average life expectancy was seventy years (sixty for males and seventy-three for females). By 1990 the average life expectancy was almost seventy-six years (seventy-two for males and seventy-nine for females). The increasing life expectancy and the fall in the number of births have meant that Austria's population is aging. One of the major concerns under these circumstances is the burden placed on the Austrian social security system: to what extent will a constant, or shrinking, labor force be able to maintain an increasing number of pensioners?

The overall decline of fertility among Austria's indigenous population is similar to developments in other advanced industrial nations in Europe. The decline is caused by a complex set of factors, including the increased use of contraception and abortion, and the increased employment of women outside the home, and changing values and attitudes toward marriage, family, and childbearing.

*Source: Based on information from Austria, Österreichisches Statistisches Zentralamt, Statistisches Handbuch für die Republik Österreich, 1991, Vienna, 1991, 24.

During the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Habsburgs were the leading political representatives of Roman Catholicism in its conflict with the Protestantism of the Protestant Reformation in Central Europe, and ever since then, Austria has been a predominantly Roman Catholic country. Because of its multinational heritage, however, the Habsburg Empire was religiously heterodox and included the ancestors of many of Austria's contemporary smaller denominational groups. The empire's tradition of religious tolerance derived from the enlightened absolutism of the late eighteenth century. Religious freedom was later anchored in Austria-Hungary's constitution of 1867. After the eighteenth century, twelve religious communities came to be officially recognized by the state in Austria: Roman Catholic; Protestant (Lutheran and Calvin); Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Russian, and Bulgarian Orthodox; Jewish; Muslim; Old Catholic; and, more recently, Methodist and Mormon.

The presence of other communities within the empire did not prevent the relationship between the Austrian imperial state and the Roman Catholic Church--or the "throne and the altar"--from being particularly close before 1918. Because of this closeness, the representatives of secular ideologies--liberals and socialists--sought to reduce the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in such public areas as education.

A relatively complicated series of treaties (or concordats) between the Republic of Austria and the Vatican defined the role and status of the Roman Catholic Church. After 1918 the Roman Catholic Church maintained considerable influence in public life. For example, many members of the church hierarchy explicitly supported the Christian Social Party (Christlichsoziale Partei-- CSP). Members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei--SDAP) responded to this partisanship in the interwar period by being explicitly anticlerical. Some Roman Catholics were committed to a form of "political Catholicism," which was anti-Liberal and anti-SDAP. Because of these sympathies, they supported the authoritarian regime that erected a one-party "Christian Corporate State" in 1934.

After the Anschluss in 1938, the Roman Catholic Church initially pursued a policy of accommodation with the National Socialist German Workers' Party (National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei--NSDAP, or Nazi Party), but by 1939 it began to assume an oppositional stance. In the decades after World War II, the Roman Catholic Church abstained from publicly and actively supporting any one political party. An exception to this restraint was the church's involvement in the controversy surrounding the legalization of abortion in Austria in the early 1970s. For its part, the Socialist Party of Austria (Sozialistische Partei Österreichs--SPÖ) developed more accommodating attitudes toward the Roman Catholic Church than were common before World War II.

According to the 1991 census, a majority of Austrians (77.9 percent) belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. This is a decline from the 1971 figure of 87.2 percent. The number of Protestants also declined in the same period. The number of Lutherans, or members of the Augsburg Confession, declined from 5.7 percent in 1971 to 4.8 percent in 1991 according to the census, and Calvinists, or members of the Helvetic Confession, declined from 0.3 percent to 0.2 percent in the same years.

In 1938 the Jewish population of Austria numbered more than 200,000, most of whom lived in Vienna. After the Anschluss, the community was almost wiped out by emigration and the Holocaust. By 1990 the community amounted to about 7,000 and consisted largely of postwar immigrants instead of Austrian-born Jews.

Owing to the influx of foreign workers from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, the Islamic and Serbian Orthodox communities experienced considerable growth in Austria in the 1970s and the 1980s. However, many of these foreign workers do not officially register with their respective religious organizations, and accurate information about the size of these communities is not available.

The influence of the Roman Catholic Church, although still formidable because of its historical position in Austrian society and network of lay organizations, receded in the postwar period. The form of nominal Roman Catholicism many Austrians practice is called "baptismal certificate Catholicism." In other words, most Roman Catholics observe traditional religious holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, and rely on the church to celebrate rites of passage, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals, but do not participate actively in parish life or follow the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on central issues. This trend can be seen in the low rate of regular church attendance (less than one-third of Catholics) and the high rates of divorce and abortion in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Within Austria there are regional patterns of religious conviction. Generally, provinces with strong conservative and agricultural traditions, such as Tirol and Vorarlberg, followed by Lower Austria and Burgenland, have higher percentages of Roman Catholics than the national average, and parish churches still fulfill a social function in many smaller communities. Religious affiliation is lower in urban centers, however, and Vienna has the lowest percentage of any Austrian province.

The decline in the number of Austrians professing religious affiliation and the increase in the number who have no religious affiliation--4.3 percent in 1971 and 8.6 percent in 1991--may be interpreted as an increase in the secularization of Austrian society. Renouncing church membership and being without religious affiliation was one of the anticlerical, historical traditions of the SPÖ. In general, Austrians without religious affiliation tend to be associated with the SPÖ, whereas "active" Catholics tend to be connected to conservative parties and hold conservative political views.

The increase in the number of Austrians without religious affiliation should not be interpreted as an exclusively political gesture, however. Recognized religious organizations in Austria finance themselves by "taxing" their members directly with a socalled church tax, which amounts to approximately 1 percent of their income. Austrians who do not actively participate in their religious communities frequently officially withdraw from them in order to avoid paying this tax.

Railroads: 3,737 miles total (94 percent standardgauge 1.435 meter and 6 percent 0.760 meter), of which about 3,341 miles state owned and 397 miles privately owned.

Highways: As of December 1992, 66,960 miles, of which about 1,116 miles major highways, 6,138 miles main roads, and 16,058 miles secondary roads.

Inland Waterways: More than 217 miles, carrying approximately one-fifth of total trade. Danube River only navigable waterway with barges carrying up to 1,800 tons; important connection between North Sea, Germany, and Black Sea.

Ports: Vienna major river port.

Civil Airports: Fifty-five total; twenty with permanent-surface runways. Main international airport at ViennaSchwechat , southeast of Vienna; international flights also from Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, and Salzburg.

Telecommunications: Highly developed and efficient system with 4 million telephones, twenty-seven radio stations, forty-seven television stations, and four satellite ground stations.

Government: Federal republic with nine provinces, each with own assembly and government. 1920 constitution, revised 1929, forms constitutional basis of government. Government consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. President head of state, elected every six years by popular vote. Executive headed by chancellor (prime minister) and cabinet, which reflect party composition of parliament. Legislative power vested in bicameral parliament consisting of Nationalrat (National Council) and Bundesrat (Federal Council). Nationalrat primary legislative power, with 183 popularly elected members; Bundesrat represents the provinces with sixty-three members elected by provincial assemblies. Independent judiciary.

Legal System: Supreme Court for civil and criminal cases, Administrative Court for cases involving administrative agencies, and Constitutional Court for constitutional cases. Four higher provincial courts, seventeen provincial and district courts, and numerous local courts.

Politics: Dominated by Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs--SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (Österreichs Volkspartei--ÖVP); government coalition of these two parties since 1987. Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs--FPÖ) gaining strength despite split in early 1993 with formation of The Liberal Forum (Das Liberale Forum). Environmentalists also represented in parliament.

Foreign Relations: Founding member of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and member of United Nations (UN) and European Economic Area (EEA). Admission into European Union (EU) expected in January 1995.

Political Parties: Click here for descriptions.

Armed Forces: In 1994 defense forces consisted of 51,250 troops, of which 44,000 were in Bundesheer (Federal Army; including 19,500 conscripts) and 7,250 in air force (including 2,400 conscripts). No women serve in armed forces.

Treaty Commitments: State Treaty of 1955 prohibits union with Germany. Constitutional Law of October 26, 1955, declares permanent neutrality, rejects participation in any military alliance, and prohibits establishment of any foreign military base on territory.

Conscription and Reserves: Males obliged to perform total of six months of active duty and two months of reserve training (or eight months of active duty with no reserve training). Ready reserves (ready within seventy-two hours) 119,000 in 1994. Each year 66,000 receive refresher training. Additional 960,000 under age fifty with reserve training (all ranks).

Standing Forces: According to The Military Balance, 1994-1995, army consists of three corps (one organized as mechanized division consisting of three armored infantry brigades) and one provincial military command. Air force (part of Bundesheer) has one air division headquarters, three air regiments, and three air defense battalions. Reorganization of Bundesheer under New Army Structure to be completed in 1995.

Troops Abroad: In 1994 Austrian military troops serving in UN peacekeeping forces included deployment in Cyprus, Iraq/Kuwait, Rwanda, and Syria.

Sources of Equipment: Heavily dependent on foreign suppliers: United States, 29 percent; Western Europe, excluding Germany, 67 percent. State Treaty precludes arms imports from Germany. Sweden primary source of aircraft and missiles.

Defense Expenditures: In 1993 defense budget US$1.63 billion, lowest proportion of GNP (1 to 2 percent) in Europe, except for Luxembourg.

Internal Security: Most important law enforcement agencies part of national government and organized by Ministry for Interior. Federal Police, oriented to urban areas; Gendarmerie, responsible for rural areas and towns without federal or local contingent; State Police, concerned with counterterrorism and counterintelligence.

Under the constitution, the president is the nominal commander in chief of the armed forces. In reality, the chancellor has operational authority, exercised through the minister for national defense. The chancellor also chairs the National Defense Council, which has as its members a vice chairman, the minister for national defense, an appointee of this minister, the general troop inspector of the armed forces, and a parliamentary representative. The minister for national defense, acting in cooperation with the minister for interior, coordinates the work of the four major committees under the National Defense Council: the Military Defense Committee; the Civil Defense Committee; the Economic Defense Committee; and the Psychological Defense Committee. The general troop inspector acts as the senior military adviser to the minister for national defense, assists the minister in the exercise of his authority, and, as head of the general staff, is responsible for planning. However, the army commander exercises direct operational control of the Bundesheer in both peacetime and wartime.

Article 79 of the constitution, as amended in 1985, states that the army is entrusted with the military defense of the country. Insofar as the legally constituted civil authority requests its cooperation, the army is further charged with protecting constitutional institutions and their capacity to act, as well as the democratic freedoms of the inhabitants; maintaining order and security in the interior; and rendering aid in disasters and mishaps of extraordinary scope. In administering the armed forces, the Ministry for National Defense is organized into four principal sections and the inspectorate general: Section I deals with legal and legislative matters; Section II handles personnel and recruitment matters, including discipline and grievances; Section III is concerned with troop command, schools, and other facilities, and it also comprises departments G-1 through G-5 as well as a separate department for air operations; and Section IV deals with procurement and supply, quartermaster matters, armaments, and ordnance.

The general troop inspectorate is a separate section of the ministry with responsibility for coordination and fulfillment of the missions of the armed forces. It encompasses a general staff department, an attaché department, and planning and inspection groups.

The armed forces consist solely of the army, of which the air force is considered a constituent part. As of 1993, the total active complement of the armed forces was 52,000, of whom 20,000 to 30,000 were conscripts undergoing training of six to eight months. The army had 46,000 personnel on active duty (including an estimated 19,500 conscripts), and the air force had 6,000 personnel (2,400 conscripts).

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