Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich, Hintere Zollamtsstrasse 2B, A-1035 Vienna.
1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001. The present description relates to the 2001 population census (held on 15 May).
(a) Geographical scope: Whole country.
(b) Persons covered: Resident population of all ages, including foreigners living permanently in Austria and nationals working temporarily abroad; excluding exterritorial persons and nationals who have given up their main residence in Austria.
The last weeks preceding the census day; in case of doubt, the person's situation on the census day (15 May) is taken into account.
(a) Total population, by sex and age: yes
Economically active population by:
(b) Sex and age group: yes
(c) Industry: yes
(d) Occupation: yes
(e) Status in employment: yes
(f) Highest educational level: yes
(g) Hours of work: yes
(h) Other characteristics: yes
Re (a): The age is defined in terms of exact birth date, i.e. day, month and year.
Re (g): Hours of work relate to usual hours of work of full-time, long part-time and short part-time employed persons.
Re (h): The census also covers information on other topics, such as: frequency of travel to work (daily, non-daily); place of work; time used for the daily travel to work; usual means of transport for the longest distance; citizenship, country of birth, marital status, household status, number of children born alive, religious affiliation, colloquial language; field of highest level of education; number of employees of employing company or office.
(a) Economically active population: It comprises all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the reference period, were either employed or unemployed, according to the definitions given below. The definition covers all members of the armed forces.
(b) Employment: Considered as employed are all persons who had full-time activity (i.e. 32 hours and more per week) or long part-time activity (i.e. 12 to 31 hours per week) or short part-time activity (1 to 11 hours per week). Persons on maternity or unpaid parental leave are counted as employed.
It is reported that the following categories are included:
i) persons doing unpaid work in family firm or business;
ii) employed persons, temporarily absent from work;
iii) working students with a part-time job;
iv) seasonal or occasional workers;
v) conscripts for military/civilian service;
vi) apprentices.
Persons belonging to categories (i), (v) and (vi) above can be identified separately. Other groups of persons in vocational training (e.g. student nurses, trainees, volunteers) are also regarded as employed, but cannot be identified separately.
(c) Unemployment: Considered as unemployed are all persons who were without work and seeking work.
Both employed persons and unemployed persons previously employed are classified by industry, by occupation, by status in employment and by level of education attained.
(a) Industry: Two questions were asked, i.e. name of company (workplace or employer) and branch of economic activity of the company or office (e.g.: retail sale of food, education, rail transport); self-employed were requested to give their name. For coding industry, 503 classes of NACE were used. Coding industry was mainly performed by matching the address of the place of work and name of employer or company with the updated business register. Thus not only the NACE code was derived but also the variable “number of employees of the employing company or office”.
(b) Occupation: The respondents were asked to give the exact title of their present or last occupation (if unemployed), (e.g.: bookkeeper, shoe salesperson, video recorder assembler, clerical worker, street cleaner, PC administrator, operations scheduler). For coding occupation, 390 unit groups of ISCO-88 (COM) were used.
(c) Status in employment: Employed and unemployed persons previously employed were asked to determine their present or previous status in employment, i.e.: employer or self-employed; unpaid family worker; under contract for works and services and free lance worker, employee, civil servant; skilled worker; semi-skilled worker; unskilled worker; apprentice. For coding status in employment, these nine groups were used.
(d) Level of education: Respondents over the age of 15 were asked to name all types of education they had successfully completed. i.e.: primary school, lower secondary school, grammar school, apprenticeship, lower and higher vocational school, university and “other education”. For coding highest level of education eight groups were used. For coding field of highest level of education 676 positions were used. Links to ISCED-97 have been established.
The main differences relate to the classifications used in 2001. For industry, NACE was introduced, and for main occupation, ISCO-88 (COM) was used.
A variety of publications relating to the census results were issued from October 2002 onwards in the series “Volkszählung 2001 – Hauptergebnisse I”. The census results on economic characteristics will be published in the series “Volkszählung 2001 – Hauptergebnisse II” from December 2003 onwards. More detailed data are available by ISIS – Statistical Data Base via the Internet (www.statistik.at) and in separate tabulations (tailor- made tables) on request.
The organization responsible for these publications is Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich, Hintere Zollamtsstrasse 2B, A-1035 Vienna.
All census data are available on request in printed form or electronically (e-mail, diskettes, CD-ROM).