Geography of Austria

Austria is a small, predominantly mountainous country in Central Europe, approximately between Germany, Italy and Hungary. It has a total area of 83,879 km² (32,385 mi²), about twice the size of Switzerland and slightly smaller than the state of Maine.

The landlocked country shares national borders with Switzerland (a non-European Union member state, which it borders for 158 km, or 98 mi) and the principality of Liechtenstein (also a non-EU member state, of which it borders for 34 km or 21 mi) to the west, Germany (801 km or 497 mi) and the Czech Republic (402 km or 249 mi) and Slovakia (105 km or 65 mi) to the north, Hungary to the east (331 km or 205 mi), and Slovenia (299 km or 185 mi) and Italy (404 km or 251 mi) to the south (total: 2,534 km or 1,574 mi).

The westernmost third of the somewhat pear-shaped country consists of a narrow corridor between Germany and Italy that is between 32 km (19 mi) and 60 km (37 mi) wide. The rest of Austria lies to the east and has a maximum north–south width of 280 km (173 mi). The country measures almost 600 km (372 mi) in length, extending from Lake Constance (German Bodensee) on the Austrian-Swiss-German border in the west to the Neusiedler See on the Austrian-Hungarian border in the east. The contrast between these two lakes – one in the Alps and the other a typical steppe lake on the westernmost fringe of the Hungarian Plain – illustrates the diversity of Austria's landscape.

Seven of Austria's nine provinces have long historical traditions predating the establishment of the Republic of Austria in 1918: Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. The provinces of Burgenland and Vienna were established after World War I. Most of Burgenland had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary, but it had a predominantly German-speaking population and hence became Austrian. Administrative and ideological reasons played a role in the establishment of Vienna as an independent province. Vienna, historically the capital of Lower Austria, was a socialist stronghold, whereas Lower Austria was conservative, and both socialists and conservatives wanted to consolidate their influence in their respective provinces. Each province has a provincial capital with the exception of Vienna, which is a province in its own right in addition to being the federal capital. In Vienna, the City Council and the mayor function as a provincial parliament and provincial governor, respectively.

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