East Tyrol's population is falling: an overview of the reasons and developments!

East Tyrol's population is falling: an overview of the reasons and developments!

The Lienz district in Tyrol is struggling with a worrying decline in its population. Between January 1, 2004 and January 1, 2024, the population fell from 50,199 to 48,841. Despite an increase in births, statistics show that many more people are emigrating than are moving in. This negative migration balance is the main reason for the falling numbers in East Tyrol dolomitenstadt.at reported.

The year 2023 saw a slight improvement with a balance of -13 people leaving, but the situation remains critical. A look at the population structure shows that the district has an above-average population. Around 3.3 percent of residents are over 85 years old, making East Tyrol the region with the highest proportion of this age group. On the other hand, only 14.4 percent of the population is under 15 years of age, which strongly influences the district status in the entire Tyrolean comparison database wikipedia.org.

Changes in community structure

The Lienz district, which is the largest in Tyrol with 33 communities, is not only confronted with a declining population, but also with structural change in these communities. While the city of Lienz continues to grow slightly and currently has over 12,039 inhabitants, there are communities like Untertilliach with only 216 inhabitants. The large difference in area in the communities from Matrei in East Tyrol to Gaimberg, the smallest community with only 7.28 km², creates additional challenges in regional development.

Emigration has been curbed somewhat in recent years, but a comprehensive strategy to attract new residents is still necessary in order to reverse the negative demographic trends in East Tyrol. The coming years will be crucial in increasing the region's attractiveness and stabilizing the population so that communities do not shrink further.