While Austria is ranked among the countries with the most complex citizenship procedures, the trends point in the opposite direction. 

In the third quarter of this year, 17,649 people obtained Austrian citizenship, an increase of 11.5% compared to the same period last year, according to Statistik Austria, the statistics office. According to this report, about 38% of the newly naturalised lived abroad at the time of approval.  

A closer look at the data on those who have resided in Austria for at least 6 years reveals that 31.2% of naturalisations fall into this category. 

Among the highest percentages of naturalisation are citizens originally from Syria (19.1 %), Turkey (10.8 %), and Afghanistan (8 %), followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iran.

The report states that 38% of the newly naturalised are individuals who were politically persecuted by the Nazi regime era, over 5,500 had lived in Austria for over six years and fulfilled other conditions such as language skills, sustainable integration or birth in Austria.

According to Statistik Austria, at the federal-state level, nearly all states recorded increases in naturalisations in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. The most significant relative gains were in Vorarlberg (43.6% to 70), Burgenland (+30.1% to 186), and Lower Austria (+28.5% to 2,045). In total, the highest number of citizenship approvals in the last nine months is in Vienna, with 3,284.