The purpose of archival custody is to preserve all written, pictorial and audio material arising from the activities of governmental and non-governmental agencies, and also other institutions, provided that it is classified as “worthy of archiving” so that it is permanently preserved due to its value as a source of information. Accordingly, archives are authorities and institutions that are concerned with the collection, custody and development of archival material of this kind.
Since the reporting year 2019, Archive Statistics have been compiled by Statistics Austria as a voluntary annual survey on the basis of the archive register kept by the Austrian State Archives. The data collected describes structural features of the institutions as well as their use.