home » europe » austria » geography

geography Austria

Geography of Austria

The Republic of Austria is situated in the heart of Europe, bordering Germany and Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Austria is a landlocked country with capital Vienna, which hosts all financial, government and cultural institutions, plus the biggest business companies and national media. Vienna dominates the cultural scheme as well. Here is situated one quarter of the population in the country as well.

Austria is a mountainous country set in the Alps. The high Alps in the western part of the country flatten into plains and low lands in the eastern part. Divided into five areas, Austria comprises of Austrian Alps which is the largest area, Austrian foothills and Carpathians, Austrian granite plateau and Vienna basin. The Alps do cover 62 % of Austrian territory; however the country has more to offer besides mountains. The eastern regions and namely Lower Austria and Burgenland have landscape similar to that of Hungary and Czech Republic. Small in territory, Austria has glaciers and meadows, alpine valleys and wooded foothills, river gorges and vineyards. The climate in Austria is temperate continental, with hot or rainy summers and cold winters.

Humid winds often predominate in the weather. The population in Austria is slightly above eight millions, with 1.6 million residents in the capital Vienna and the rest in the other main cities. The official language in the country is German, which is spoken by almostall residents in Austria. The tourists should know however that the German spoken in Austria has some differences in comparison with the German spoken in Germany. In the districts of Carinthia and Styria there is a minority which speaks Slovenian. Approximately 74 % of the Austrians are Roman Catholid by religion and 5 % are Protestants. The other percentages go as follows: 12 % with no religion and the rest divided among the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Jewish.