Area: 83,870.95 km2
Length of the State borders: 2,706 km
Highest mountain: Grossglockner (3,798 m)
Biggest lake: Lake Constance (538.5 km2, 11 percent of the shoreline is in Austria Longest river: Danube (2,848 km, 350 km of which are in Austria)

Source: Statistik Austria

Austria, with its capital Vienna, is situated in Central Europe. Austria’s geographical position has long made it a crossroads for trade routes between the major European economic and cultural areas. Austria borders eight countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. Except for Switzerland and Lichtenstein, all these countries are part of the European Union.

Approximately 60 percent of Austrian territory is mountainous and belongs to the Eastern Alps (Tyrol Central Alps, Hohe Tauern and Niedere Tauern, Northern Calcareous or Limestone Alps, Southern Calcareous Alps and Wienerwald). The Bohemian Massif is in Upper and Lower Austria, north of the Danube. The Granite and Gneiss Plateau, part of the Bohemian Massif, is geologically the oldest part of Austria. The most densely populated areas are the large plains, such as the Alpine Foreland and the Vienna Basin, in the eastern part of Austria along the Danube, and the Graz Basin in southern Styria.

Climate

Austria lies in a transition zone, with a predominantly Central European, maritime climate and often damp westerly winds in the west and north, and a dry, continental climate with hotter summers and colder winters in the north-east and east of the country.