Regional Overview
With its 2.5 million inhabitants, the Vienna region is the biggest urban center in Austria, and also the second largest German speaking city (second only to Berlin). Vienna serves as a hub for the wider Central European region that stretches beyond national borders, including Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, and the southern parts of the Czech Republic. Vienna still draws on its history as an imperial capital, working as a central place for the intellectual, civic, and business life of middle Europe. Civil society organizations (CSOs) play an important role in social and economic life of the Vienna region. A vibrant, heterogeneous sector of more than 20,000 CSOs provides society with welfare services, engages in advocacy activities, and serves as a crucial vehicle for community building.
A key feature of the sector is its close relationship with the state and political parties, a political arrangement defined by scholars as corporatism. CSOs receive a large share of their income from public sources, notably providing social services in return. The nonprofit sector is composed of a few large and established organizations with close links to political parties that are also highly relevant in economic terms, and of a large number of small associations, which are particularly important for the social life in the communities. Recent developments include a decrease in public funding and support for civil society, alongside a rise in social entrepreneurship.
The interactive map below shows the representative sample of nonprofits in Vienna. Civil service organization density by postal code is marked by color. The color bar at the top of the map indicates the distribution of organizations by subject area while the sliding scale displays the variation in organization age.
