Trade (retail and wholesale) in Austria: trade licences by state
Austria has 158,318 trade licences for Trade (retail and wholesale) at a main location, 16.5% of all 956,831 licences.
Most are in Lower Austria (32,596).
57,125 of them are held by companies and other legal persons, 1 are reported dormant.
Of the licences valid today, 12,398 took effect in 2025 and 10,026 in 2024.
Kind according to GISA: freies Gewerbe. GISA key 500267, 500268. What this means
By state
| Lower Austria | 32,596 |
| Vienna | 31,659 |
| Upper Austria | 28,946 |
| Styria | 20,213 |
| Tyrol | 11,779 |
| Salzburg | 10,698 |
| Carinthia | 10,349 |
| Vorarlberg | 6,637 |
| Burgenland | 5,441 |
The ten districts with the most licences
| Graz | 4,444 |
| Salzburg-Umgebung | 3,400 |
| Linz | 3,186 |
| Salzburg | 3,183 |
| Linz-Land | 3,153 |
| Baden | 3,009 |
| Vöcklabruck | 2,985 |
| Mödling | 2,749 |
| Graz-Umgebung | 2,730 |
| Innsbruck-Land | 2,575 |
Took effect, by year
| 2026 | 12,710 |
| 2025 | 12,398 |
| 2024 | 10,026 |
| 2023 | 8,745 |
| 2022 | 7,296 |
| 2021 | 7,307 |
| 2020 | 6,700 |
| 2019 | 5,882 |
| 2018 | 5,223 |
| 2017 | 4,841 |
| 2016 | 4,810 |
Only licences valid today; ended ones are not in the dataset.
More trades
- Personal care: 76,340
- Hospitality: 56,452
- IT services: 46,209
Source: GISA (Austrian trade information system), Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism, dataset "Gewerbe in Österreich" on data.gv.at, CC BY 4.0, as of November 2026. Counted are valid trade licences at main locations. data.gv.at. As of November 2026.
Source: Austrian company register (Firmenbuch), Republic of Austria, represented by the BMJ, open data under CC BY 4.0.