IMPACT OF THE CORONA PANDEMIC ON THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE IN AUSTRIA

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic and the policy measures imposed to contain the virus affected people's health and lifestyles. Based on data available to the Federal Agency "Statistics Austria”, this paper asks about the impact of the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 (and partly beyond) on the Austrian demographics and population. It shows that mortality increased significantly during this period but varied by waves of infection also with the introduction of different policy measures (e.g., lockdowns). There are also changes in the number of births over the course of the pandemic, which can be interpreted through insecurities related to lockdowns and vaccinations. People who wanted to marry or get divorced during the pandemic years were confronted with closed offices and restrictions on holding celebrations, which is why there were significantly fewer marriages and divorces. International migration dropped significantly, especially in the spring of 2020, when European and global mobility was severely restricted, with differences between people of different nationalities. This was also reflected in the number of asylum applications filed in Austria. Migrations within Austria were strongly reduced during the first lockdown in 2020, all further lockdowns had less influence on them. However, in 2020 and 2021 there were several phases in which more people moved from urban to rural areas than before the pandemic. The number of registered secondary residences – which took on new relevance in the context of mobility restrictions and the use of home offices – also changed overall, their number increased during the pandemic, but in many municipalities, deregistrations of seasonal workers were also noticeable. © 2022 Austrian Geographical Society. All rights reserved.