Number of inhabitants

Population growth in Ländle loses momentum

The population in Vorarlberg grew last year - albeit at a slower rate than before. The region is also getting older.(Bild: Matthias Rhomberg )

As of June 30, Vorarlberg had exactly 411,225 registered main residents - 0.6 percent more than in the previous year.

Vorarlberg is known to be a prosperous federal state, and population growth has been correspondingly strong in recent years. Compared to 2014, 33,380 more people live in the state today, which is almost as many as the population of Feldkirch. Recently, however, development has lost some of its momentum - partly due to the current economic downturn and partly due to the slowdown in migration flows.

Two factors
Despite these dampening factors, the number of people registered as having their main residence in Vorarlberg has risen by 2522 people since June 30, 2023. It is interesting to look at the details, especially as population growth is known to be influenced by two variables, namely natural population movement (balance of births and deaths) and the migration balance (balance of immigration and emigration). In this respect, the trend of recent years is confirmed: Vorarlberg is not growing from within, but primarily due to immigration. Although the birth balance is positive - 417 more children were born than deaths were registered in the same period - this factor only accounts for 16.5 percent of population growth. 83.5 percent, on the other hand, is due to immigration.

Facts

52,059 people had registered their main residence in Dornbirn on June 20, making it the most populous municipality in Vorarlberg. Feldkirch follows in second place with 36,522 inhabitants.

The largest foreign population group continues to be German nationals (20,124 people), followed by people with Turkish passports (12,984). Syrian nationals, a group that fled to Vorarlberg due to the war in their home country, are already in third place. A total of 11,927 people from the crisis regions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Ukraine currently live in Vorarlberg, which corresponds to 2.9 percent of the total population.

Regional differences
The regional differences are extremely interesting: around two thirds of the population growth was accounted for by the densely populated Rhine Valley (+1972 people), followed by the Bregenzerwald (+221 people) and the Walgau (+183 people). However, Klostertal with Arlberg (-52 people) and Kleinwalsertal (-12 people) are the only regions in the province with a declining population trend.

This can also be seen from the figures collected by the regional statistics office: Vorarlberg's population is getting older. While the age groups of those under 15 and those of working age (15 to under 65) have only grown moderately in a ten-year comparison (by 6.7 and 5.9 percent respectively), the increase in the group of senior citizens (aged 65 and over) was more than three times as strong at almost 23 percent.