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Austria
Population
Total population in Austria is 8.772.865 by 1st January 2017. 18.8% of the population is foreign born (Eurostat). The median age of Austrians is 42.4 which is slightly more than the European average of 40.36 (UN Data).
Political Parties
The most recent parliamentary election was held in October 2017. The prominent parties’ vote shares in this election and their orientations are as follows (Parlgov):
|
Party Name |
Vote Share |
Ideological Orientation |
|
Austrian People's Party |
31.5 |
Christian democracy |
|
Social Democratic Party of Austria |
26.9 |
Social democracy |
|
Freedom Party of Austria |
26 |
Right-wing |
|
NEOS -- The New Austria |
5.3 |
Liberal |
|
Peter Pilz List |
4.4 |
Green/Ecologist |
|
The Greens -- The Green Alternative |
3.8 |
Green/Ecologist |
|
My Vote Counts! |
1 |
Special issue |
Electoral System
The system used in Austria is Closed List PR with preferential vote in which parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get distributed to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives. The voter turnout in 2017 election was 80.00% (idea.int)
Quality of Democracy
Austria is a parliamentary democracy. Quality of democracy score by Freedom House is 1 out of 7 where 1 is most free and 7 is least free. According to Transparency International, Austria is ranked 16th least corrupted among 180 countries with a score of 75 out of 100.
Gender Equality
34% of the parliamentarians are women currently although there is no legislated quota for female candidates. (idea.int)