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REVEALED: Austria’s most popular baby names in 2022

Austria's most popular baby names in 2022 might surprise readers.

Published: 10 August 2022 13:22 CEST
REVEALED: Austria's most popular baby names in 2022
Marie and Paul are the most popular baby names in Austria, according to Statistics Austria. Photo by Cottonbro /Pexels.

It’s that time of the year again when Statistics Austria releases the country’s most popular names for newborn babies, with Marie (for girls) and Paul (for boys) revealed as the winners.

Marie has taken the top spot for the second year in a row, while Paul has snatched the top spot for the first time since 2018, according to the latest figures.

Emilia and Jakob followed in second place for girls and boys respectively.

READ ALSO: Could Austria change the rules around citizenship?

Tobias Thomas, Director General of Statistics Austria, said: “He [Paul] was the top climber, moving up four places from last year. Lea and David on the other hand, each slipped three places compared to the previous year.”

The name Marie was chosen 975 times in Austria in 2021, and Paul was chosen 810 times.

Marie first entered the top ten list of most popular girl’s names in Austria in 2009 and has been climbing steadily ever since. Whereas Paul has been in the top ten since 2012, claimed the top spot in 2018 and appeared in second place in 2017 and 2019.

READ MORE: IN NUMBERS: One in four Austrian residents now of foreign origin

Statistics Austria compiles the results by analysing registered baby names in their original form, without special characters.

Here’s the full top 10 list of the most popular baby names for girls and boys in Austria in 2021.

Girls

  1. Marie
  2. Emilia
  3. Anna
  4. Emma
  5. Lena
  6. Mia
  7. Laura
  8. Valentina
  9. Hannah
  10. Lea

Boys

  1. Paul
  2. Jakob
  3. Maximilian
  4. Elias
  5. David
  6. Felix
  7. Leon
  8. Tobias
  9. Jonas
  10. Noah

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HEALTH

Patients in Vienna face long waits for specialist health appointments

Waiting times to get appointments with health specialists in Vienna have increased significantly, a new study has revealed.

Published: 17 May 2024 09:56 CEST
Patients in Vienna face long waits for specialist health appointments

Accessing essential healthcare within a reasonable timeframe is becoming increasingly difficult for Viennese residents.

The Vienna Medical Association presented their new study this week which shows that waiting times for appointments with health specialists have increased significantly in recent years.

The study, which involved contacting over 850 doctors’ practices via so-called “mystery calls,” revealed that child and adolescent psychiatry currently had the longest waiting times in the city.

Patients can expect to wait an average of 90 days for an appointment.

Other specialisations where patients have to wait long to receive help include radiology (57 days), neurology (45 days), ophthalmology (44 days), pulmonology (36 days), internal medicine (33 days), and dermatology (28 days).

The waiting time for seeing a gynaecologist has increased fourfold since 2012, with patients now waiting an average of 32 days.

READ MORE: Why are there fewer public sector doctors in Austria?

No new patients accepted

In certain specialist areas, there is no capacity to accommodate new patients. The situation where no new patients are accepted occurs particularly often in paediatric practices, where more than half of the public healthcare practices have put a freeze on admissions.

In child and adolescent psychiatry, 40 percent do not accept new patients, and among gynaecologists, it is almost a third (30 percent). Family doctors also struggle with welcoming new patients, and many of their practices have already reached full capacity.

The Medical Association calls for immediate action, urging the health insurance sector to become more attractive and receive better funding. This could involve measures to incentivise doctors to work within the public system, potentially reducing wait times and improving patient access to care.

During the study presentation, Johannes Steinhart, president of the association, described the increased waiting times as the result of neglect within the established health insurance sector. He said he believes that the public health system is massively endangered.

Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, chairwoman of the Curia of the resident doctors in the association, pointed out that while the population of the federal capital has grown by 16 percent since 2012, the number of public doctors has fallen by 12 percent in the same period.

The association now wants to make the public healthcare system more attractive to doctors, which could cut down waiting times and make it easier for patients to receive care. The association’s demands for this to happen include increasing flexibility in contract options, integrating health and social professions in individual practices, reducing bureaucracy, and improving fees.

ÖGK, Österreichische Gesundheitskasse, Austria’s largest public healthcare fund, is currently creating 100 additional public health positions, with almost two-thirds of the positions already having applicants, as well as planning for another 100 positions. They also aim to create a central telemedicine service and a platform for making appointments by phone and online, which is meant to reduce waiting times and improve access to care.

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