Innsbruck in figures

House prices have risen by 108 percent in 10 years

Expensive place to live: Innsbruck.

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

An area the size of Paris, surrounded by mountains, 37,304 students, citizens with an average age of 42 and almost 49 percent single households: That's Innsbruck in figures. The figures are horrendous when it comes to housing prices - the cost of a condominium has literally exploded in ten years, as can be read in a new brochure.

The city's statistics office summarized the key points of the Alpine city anew, according to the presentation on Tuesday. For Mayor Johannes Anzengruber (JA - Jetzt Innsbruck), however, the figures also meant "financial challenges".

"Great working city", but ...
"Innsbruck is a great place to work," said Anzengruber. Around a quarter of all jobs in Tyrol are carried out in the provincial capital - including a large proportion in the public sector, such as in the provincial administration or in hospitals. However, working in these public institutions "has no direct impact on municipal taxes", the city boss pointed out, referring to a financial shortcoming.

As a city, we expect "the state to take this seriously", said Anzengruber with regard to the needs-based allocations from the state of Tyrol to the municipalities. It should not just be a matter of "talking to surrounding municipalities", he warned, while at the same time being "optimistic" that the city of Innsbruck would receive more money in future.

Those who live in Innsbruck have to dig deep into their pockets.

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Housing costs continue to explode
Meanwhile, the residents of Innsbruck had to put significantly more money into their own homes, according to surveys by the statistics office. "We are seeing strong growth rates in housing costs," reported Mathias Behmann, head of the office, at the presentation of a new brochure. From 2013 to 2023, the price of a new condominium rose by an average of 107.6 percent to 8,188 euros per square meter.

Since 2003, tenants have had to spend 8.30 euros more per square meter, bringing the price per square meter to 17.70 euros in the previous year. However, one of the reasons for the high housing prices is probably the small area that can be populated: although Innsbruck is as large as the French capital Paris in terms of area, only 21 percent is designated as settlement area - the rest is forests and mountains.

"A comparatively young city"
"The special thing about Innsbruck is the large number of students," said Behmann about the population structure. Although all European cities - including Innsbruck - are ageing, the Tyrolean capital with its five universities is "a comparatively young city" due to its students.

Mayor Johannes Anzengruber (right) and Chief Executive Mathias Behmann present the new statistics brochure.

(Bild: IKM/Bär)

Innsbruck also has a high level of education: 27.7 percent of people living here have completed higher education, compared to 7.3 percent in 1981. The proportion of those who have completed compulsory schooling as their highest level of education has almost halved since then to 23.7 percent (1981: 41.5 percent).

"Moderate growth"
According to Anzengruber, Austria's fifth-largest city has seen "moderate growth" in recent years, with which the city is satisfied. At the beginning of the year, 132,188 people were living there, an increase of 6.1 percent since 2014. The largest movements were recorded during the refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016, and the outbreak of the war in Ukraine also had a significant impact on the city.

However, by far the most people with non-Austrian citizenship come from Germany (10,462), followed by Italy (4007) and Turkey (2831). 68.6 percent of people living in Innsbruck have Austrian citizenship, 17.1 percent are EU citizens and 14.3 percent are third-country nationals.

"Bronze medal" in tourism
In addition to its educational institutions, Tyrol's provincial capital is also strongly influenced by tourism. In a comparison of city tourism, the city ranks third after Vienna and Salzburg in terms of overnight stays, said Anzengruber, delighted with the "bronze medal". In the 2022/2023 tourism year, 1.77 million overnight stays were recorded in a total of 9,067 beds.