Overview

A mountainous landlocked country located in south-central Europe, Austria encompasses an area of 32,377 square miles, roughly the size of the state of Maine. Bordered to the west by Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to the south by Italy and the former Yugoslavia, to the east by Hungary, and to the north by the Czech and Slovak Republics as well as Germany, Austria lies at the center of political and geographic Europe. Two-thirds of Austria's land mass is located in the Alpine region, with its highest peak, the Grossglockner, reaching 12,457 feet.

With a population of 7,587,000, Austria has maintained zero population growth in the last half of the twentieth century. It is a German-speaking country. Eighty-five percent of its population are Roman Catholic while only six percent are Protestant. Vienna, the capital of the Federal Republic of Austria, also doubles as one of the nine autonomous provinces that constitute...