TOEFL Test Centers in Austria

EDU February 16, 2019

Austria Overview

Austria is a country in Central Europe with Vienna as its capital. It is about a quarter the size of Germany and is divided into nine federal states. The Austrian form of government is a republic, the form of government a democracy. The head of state is the Federal President. Austria is a landlocked country. The Alps occupy a large part of the country. They can be crossed and traversed via passes and tunnels. About half of the land area is covered with forests. The longest river is the Danube. The country is in the temperate climate zone. The summers are warm, the winters cold. The temperatures vary depending on the altitude. Austria is a wealthy country with many welfare state benefits. Over half of the population lives in cities, the mountain regions are sparsely populated. About 1,000 years ago, today’s Austria belonged to a multi-ethnic state, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Different peoples lived in the Danube Monarchy and different languages ​​were spoken. Slovenian, Burgenland-Croatian and Hungarian are also permitted as official languages ​​today, alongside German. The people speak different dialects (vernacular). The majority of the population belongs to a Christian religious community. The industry is characterized by small and medium-sized companies. The tourism is an important part of the economy. Due to its central location in Europe, Austria has always been a transit and immigration country. In 1995 the country joined the European Union. The euro has been used for payments since 2002.

Country facts

• Official name: Republic of Austria
• Vehicle registration number: A
• ISO-3166: AT, AUT (40)
• Internet domain:.at
• Currency: 1 euro (€) = 100 cents
• Area: 83 879 km²
• Population (2018): 8.8 million
• Capital: Vienna
• Official language (s): German; regional Slovenian, Croatian, Hungarian
• Form of government: Parliamentary Federal Republic
• Administrative division: 9 federal states
• Head of State: Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen
• Federal Chancellor: Brigitte Bierlein
• Religion (s) (2001): 73.8% Catholics, 12% non-denominational, 4.9% Protestants, Muslims
• Time zone: Central European Time
• National Day: October 26th

Location and infrastructure

• Location (geographical): Central Europe
• Position (coordinates): between 46 ° 22 ‘and 49 ° 01’ north latitude and 9 ° 32 ‘and 17 ° 10’ east longitude
• Climate: Central European transitional climate, high mountain climate at higher altitudes
• Highest mountain: Großglockner (3798 m)
• Road network (2018): 137 039 km (paved)
• Railway network (2017): 5 800 km

Population

• Annual population growth (2018): 0.4%
• Birth rate (2018): 9.5 per 1000 residents.
• Death rate (2018): 9.7 per 1000 residents.
• Average age (2018): 44.2 years
• Average life expectancy (2018): 81.7 years (women 84.5; men 79)
• Age structure (2018): 14% younger than 15 years, 19.4% older than 65 years
• Literacy rate (15 year olds and older): k. A.
• Mobile phone contracts (pre-paid and post-paid) (2017): 171 per 100 residents
• Internet users (2017): 88 per 100 residents

Economy

• GDP per capita (2017): US $ 47,347
• Total GDP (2017): US $ 417 billion
• GNI per capita (2018): US $ 49,250
• Education expenditure (2014): 5.4% of GDP
• Military expenditure (2018): 0.6% of GDP
• Unemployment rate (2017): 5.5%

Unions

The first permanent trade unions emerged after 1870 from educational and support associations, i. H. after the enactment of the constitutional constitution granting all citizens freedom of assembly and association (1867) as well as the coalition law of 1870, which allowed strikes and the support of strikers. The trade unions only became more important in 1893 with the establishment of the Provisional Commission of the Austrian Trade Unions, the first umbrella organization oriented towards social democracy. The characteristic of the Austrian trade union movement in the first third of the 20th century was its fragmentation into unions of direction. In addition to the dominant social democratic-socialist federation of free trade unions in Austria, which (1929) comprised 48 member organizations with around 737,000 members, significant were the Christian (Catholic) trade unions, which had been grouped together in the Central Commission of Christian Trade Unions in Austria since 1906 and (1929) had 22 member organizations with around 108,000 members. In addition, there were employee associations, ethnic and business-peaceful organizations. After the free trade unions were dissolved (1934) by the authoritarian corporate state regime of E. Dollfuss was formed in 1934 the “unified trade union” under the leadership of Christian trade unionists, which in turn was replaced in 1938 by the German Labor Front (DAF). The free and Christian trade unionists, who were equally persecuted after 1938 and who had fought heavily in the interwar period, formed the Austrian Trade Union Confederation (ÖGB)together with communist trade union officials in 1945.

All collective bargaining agreements are subject to the control of the Joint Commission for Wages and Prices (in short: Joint Commission, founded in 1957), which is an essential institution within the economic and social partnership in Austria by representatives of the ÖGB and the Federal Chamber of Labor (BAK) on the one hand and the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and the President’s Conference of the Chambers of Agriculture, on the other hand, has an equal number of representatives on both sides. The cooperation of employer organizations and ÖGB with government members (the latter without voting rights) in the Joint Commission, The high degree of union organization and the close personal ties and programmatic affinity between the socialist faction in the ÖGB and the SPÖ as well as between the Christian trade union faction and the ÖVP give the ÖGB numerous opportunities to influence economic and social policy, among other things. Areas of politics. The number of members of the ÖGB with its seven individual trade unions is around 1.2 million.