Austria is a land which has exotic areas and locations.

Advertisment

Megri.info »» Regional »» Austria

Austria is a land which has exotic areas and locations. Its capital is Vienna. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Hungary to the east and Italy to the south.It is a parliamentary representative democracy consisting of nine federal states and is one of six European countries that have declared permanent neutrality and one of the few countries that have included this concept.The territory of Austria was originally known as the Kingdom of Noricum. It was occupied rather than conquered by the Romans during the old reign.The Austria’s parliament consists of two chambers. The composition of the Nationalrat is determined every four years by a free general election in which every citizen is allowed to vote to fill its 183 seats. A "Four Percent Hurdle" prevents a large splintering of the political landscape in the Nationalrat by awarding seats only to political parties that have obtained at least a four percent threshold of the general vote, or alternatively, have won a direct seat.Austria is divided into nine states which are divided into districts and sities. Districts are subdivided into muncipalities.

Austria Austria population was estimated in October as 8,292,3. Population of Vienna is 1.6 million representing about a quarter of the country’s population and is said to constitute a melting pot from all over central and eastern europe. In contrast to the capital, other cities do not exceed 1 million inhabitants. Though it is a very small country, its history as an European power have generated a broad contribution to art and science. It has been the professional birth place of many famous composers. According to the data collected in 2001, the mother tongue of the population by prevalence is German followed by Turkish, Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian and Bosnian.The official language, German is spoken by most of the residents of the country. Austria’s mountainous terrain led to the development of many dintinct German dialects. All the dialects in the nation, however, belong to austro groups of German dialects. There is also a distinct grammatical standard for Autrian germans with a few differences from language spoken by the Germans. Austria is divided into five different areas. The biggest area are the Austrian alps, which constitutes 62% of the total area.

The foothills in the east and areas surrounding the periphery of the Pannoni low country amount to about 12% of the total landmass. The second greater mountain area (much lower than the Alps) is situated in the north.The climate of this country is cool and temperate. It is predominately humid in the western parts. With over half of the country dominated by the Alps, the dominant climate is alpine climate. In east, the climate shows continental features with less rain than the alpine areas.Autria has very developed trade sector. Until the 1980s many of Austria’slargest firms were nationalised, however in recent years privatisation has reduced state holdings to a level comparable to other European economies.Tourism industry has also witnessed large growth.