9.591-033/10

Vienna, 12 February 2010 – The number of naturalisations in 2009 fell by more than a fifth over the previous year and by as much as more than four-fifths over 2003. According to Statistics Austria, Austrian citizenship was granted to a total of 7 990 people (including twelve people who were resident abroad) in 2009 (2008: 10 268; -22.2%). This has been the lowest figure since 1989. Nearly two-fifths of those naturalised (3 065 or 38.4%) were already born in Austria.

Two aspects are essentially responsible for the sixth consecutive decline in naturalisation rates since the "record year" in 2003 (45 112 naturalisations): firstly, the amendment to the Citizenship Act which came into force on 23 March 2006 introduced stricter requirements for the acquisition of Austrian citizenship. Secondly, there has been a significant decrease in the number of naturalisations after at least ten years of uninterrupted main residence in Austria (§ 10 para. 1 Citizenship Act) over the past five years, in parallel with the decline in immigration since 1993. While 15 835 people became Austrian citizens on these legal grounds in 2003 (35.1% of all naturalisations), the figure decreased to 1 453 people in 2009 (18.2% of all naturalisations).

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