If it wasn’t for immigration into Austria, including refugee arrivals, the Austrian population would’ve shrunk last year.

That’s according to Statistics Austria, the country’s official agency.

126,000 net newcomers is a huge increase on 2021 numbers, where 46,000 net new people took up residence in Austria.

More than half that total was made up of the 67,000 refugees who fled to Austria from Ukraine as Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

READ ALSO: Ukrainian refugees push Austria’s population past nine million

Ukrainians constituted the largest group by far. The second-largest group, at 14,000 people, were Syrians. About 9,000 Germans also took up residence in Austria last year, who made up the largest share of the net 36,000 people who came from other EEA countries, Switzerland, or the UK in 2022. A further 2,700 came from Turkey.

The immigration into Austria more than made up for the country’s demographic slide – at least this time. Around 82,600 people were born in Austria last year, about 10,000 less than the number of people who died, leaving immigration solely responsible for the country’s population increase in 2022.

Out of the country’s 9 million people, about 1.7 million do not have Austrian citizenship.

READ ALSO: Vienna will ‘soon’ reach two million residents

The largest net increase in population was seen in Vienna, which got 50,000 new residents last year and is expected to pass the 2 million mark either this year or next.

Lower and Upper Austria saw the next highest increases at around 20,000 and 18,000 people, respectively. Styria saw another 17,000 new residents.