Official Name: Republik Österreich (Republic of Austria)

Area: Europe
Size: 83,871 km² 
Coastline: Landlocked

Independence: Austrian State Treaty July 27, 1955 
Form of Govt.: Federal state
Head of Govt.: Chancellor

Capital: Vienna
Largest City: Vienna

Demographics (2005): 8,292,322, 99 /km²
German-speakers 92%, recognized minorities include Slovene- Hungarian-,Czech-, Slovak-, and Croatian-Speakers 4%, Turks 1.6%,other or unspecified 2.4%

GDP per Capita (2005): $32,220

Languages: According to the 2001 census, the mother tongue of the population by prevalence, is German (88.6%) followed by Turkish (2.3%), Serbian (2.2%), Croatian (1.6%), Hungarian (0.5%) and Bosnian (0.4%).

Geography: almost 75% of the country is mountainous and Austria can be topographically divided into (1.) the Eastern Alps, (2.) the northern Alpine forelands, (3.) the Bohemian Plateau, (4.) the Vienna Basin and (5.) the eastern and southern lowlands. The principal river is the Danube and its tributaries which flow eastward through central Austria. Austria has the highest percentage of forest in Central Europe with forests covering around 37% of the land area, of which conifers account for 85% while 10% are beech, 2% are oak and deciduous trees account for the remainder

Climate: (1.) the Alps where it is often sunny in winter but cloudy in summer. (2.) The Danube Valley and Vienna Basin, the driest regions where winter snow is rarely deep. (3.) The southeast region which experiences heavy thunderstorms and where winters can be severe, although summers are warmer and sunnier than the Alps region. Average temperature ranges in Vienna are from -4 to 1 degrees in January to 15 to 25 degrees in July.