Before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, Linz grew by up to 4,000 inhabitants a year. This year there was an increase of around 800 people. “This is easily manageable for Linz,” says SP Mayor Klaus Luger, who adds: “The slight slowdown in population growth gives us air. After all, increasing numbers of residents also mean high expenditures for the expansion of urban infrastructure such as childcare facilities and apartments.”
According to the latest statistics from urban research, there are now exactly 208,966 residents with a main residence in Linz, which is 828 more than in 2020. “This increase is back at the level of 2019,” says Luger. Linz recorded the largest increase in residents in the past eight years in 2014 with 3848 people.
Personal reasons
The balance of arrivals and departures is also positive this year: 13,768 people have moved to Linz, while 12,526 have left the city. Why? “In the vast majority of cases, these are very personal motives,” says Luger, in other words, couples moved in together – or, in the worst case, divorced. Incidentally, a total of 60 percent of all marriages in Linz are divorced.
On the other hand, the birth rate is negative for the first time, which means that for the first time since 2013, more people have died than babies were born. Specifically, babies were born in 1861 and 1932 died. The main reason for the negative balance? “Corona,” says Luger, who explains that “in times of crisis, fewer and fewer babies are born, and there is also an increased mortality rate due to the pandemic.”
Fewer Austrians
The FPÖ, on the other hand, criticizes the fact that the proportion of Austrian citizens is decreasing. Specifically, the proportion of Austrians has fallen since 2002 from 87.89 percent to 75.04 percent in 2020. At the same time, the proportion of foreigners more than doubled from 12.11 percent (2002) to 25 percent (2020). “Above all, the proportion of foreigners from non-EU countries has risen dramatically from 0.99 to 10.10 percent,” says FP parliamentary group chairman Wolfgang Grabmayr: “We need a comprehensive immigration concept.” He also calls for a reform of social benefits such as the active pass, “so that they do not serve as a motivation for immigration,” as Grabmayr says.
Source: Nachrichten
