The nine federal states (Länder) of Austria. For each Land, I list: the number of districts (Bezirke — including statutory cities where applicable), the number of municipalities (Gemeinden), the number of statutory cities (Statutarstädte) within the Land, and any other notable administrative-reform or structural details. Because data are drawn from multiple sources and may refer to different years, some figures are approximate or reflect recent reform status.
Mountainous terrain; municipality count higher in past, but reforms reduced size.
Lower Austria (Niederösterreich)
Data for exact district count not given here; but has many districts (one of the largest states)
573 municipalities
4 statutory cities
Largest by area; earlier had ~1,652 municipalities in 1965, reduced via reforms.
Salzburg (state)
6 rural districts + Salzburg city (statutory) = 7 district-level units
119 municipalities (including Salzburg city)
1 statutory city (Salzburg)
Alpine state; moderate municipality count.
Styria (Steiermark)
13 districts (including statutory city Graz) = 13 district units
286 municipalities
1 statutory city (Graz)
Major municipal-reform: from 542 to 286 municipalities (2010-2015)
Tyrol (Tirol)
9 districts (including the statutory city) – exact breakdown: 1 statutory city + 8 rural districts (total ~9)
279 municipalities
1 statutory city (Innsbruck)
Alpine region; many small municipalities due to geography.
Upper Austria (Oberösterreich)
Data for exact district number not provided in the cited snippet, but is one of the larger states
440 municipalities
3 statutory cities
Industrialised; higher average municipal size than many rural states.
Vienna (Wien)
Unique: It is both a federal state and a city. There are 23 municipal districts (Gemeindebezirke) within Vienna.
1 municipality (the city itself)
The city itself is effectively a statutory city / state
Highest population density; administrative structure simplified given dual status.
Vorarlberg
Data: the number of municipalities is 96
96 municipalities
0 statutory cities (as per that breakdown)
Westernmost Land; smallest by area (except Vienna) among the states; fewer municipalities due to more compact settlement patterns.
* “Districts” means the second-level territorial administrative units (Bezirke) including statutory cities when they perform both municipal and district functions. † “Municipalities” means the lowest tier of local government (Gemeinden), which may have different designations (city/town/market town) but share common local government status.
Additional remarks & caveats
Nationally, there are 94 district‐level administrative units in Austria (which include 79 “regular” districts and 15 statutory cities) as of recent counts.
The total number of municipalities in Austria is cited at 2,095 (as of Jan 2020) or nearby.
Municipal reform has been ongoing: many Länder have reduced the number of municipalities via mergers to increase efficiency and capacity (for example, Styria’s reduction from 542 to 286 municipalities).
Some data vary by year (for example the number of municipalities or district count) and definitions may differ slightly (e.g., counting of statutory cities).
The number of municipalities per Land shows wide variance: for example, Vorarlberg with 96 municipalities, Lower Austria with 573 municipalities.
The average municipal population size is quite small in Austria relative to many other countries: e.g., in some analyses Austria’s average municipality size is about 4 200 inhabitants.
