Austrian Germans

Austrians
Österreicher

Flag of Austria
Total population
(c. 8–8.5 million)
Regions with significant populations
Austria        6.75 million
United States	684,184
Germany	345,620
Canada	197,990
Australia	45,530
Switzerland	40,300–65,090
United Kingdom	21,600–25,000
France	20,000
Argentina	17,000
Italy	16,331
South Africa	14,000
Spain	10,100
Brazil	10,000
Hungary	9,044
Israel	6,800
Netherlands	6,600–8,000
Sweden	6,311
Liechtenstein	3,868
Poland	3,790
Slovakia	3,154
Slovenia	3,052
Belgium	3,020
Romania	3,000
Mexico	3,000
Other countries (30,000–45,000)  Czech Republic 2,600–3,500  Greece 2,250–2,900  Turkey 1,900–14,400  Russia 2,953  Egypt 2,900  United Arab Emirates 2,500  China 1,800  Denmark 1,300–1,900  Chile 1,300  New Zealand 1,300  Norway 1,200–1,588 Elsewhere c. 7,000
Languages
German (Standard: Austrian German; Dialects: Austro-Bavarian and Alemannic)
Religion
Historically: primarily Roman Catholic minority Lutheran Nowadays (2016): Christian (68%) Irreligious (24%)
Related ethnic groups
Germanic peoples (especially Germans, the Swiss and Liechtensteiners)

3,000

c. 7,000

Austrians (German: Österreicher) are a Germanic nation, native to Austria that share a common Austrian culture, Austrian descent and Austrian history. The English term Austrians was applied to the population of Habsburg Austria from the 17th or 18th century. Subsequently, during the 19th century, it referred to the citizens of the Empire of Austria (1804–1867), and from 1867 until 1918 to the citizens of Cisleithania. In the closest sense, the term Austria originally referred to the historical March of Austria, corresponding roughly to the Vienna Basin in what is today Lower Austria.

Historically, Austrians were regarded as ethnic Germans and viewed themselves as such. Austria was part of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation until the Austro-Prussian war in 1866 which resulted in Prussia expelling Austria from the Confederation. Thus, when Germany was founded as a nation-state in 1871, Austria was not a part of it. In 1867, Austria was reformed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I, Austria was reduced to a rump state and adopted and officially used the name the Republic of German-Austria (Republik Deutschösterreich) in an attempt for union with Germany, but was forbidden due to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). The First Austrian Republic was founded in 1919. The Third Reich annexed Austria with the Anschluss in 1938.