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Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, by the other Austrian states of Carinthia, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The state's capital is Graz, the second largest city in Austria after Vienna.
Under the Otakar dynasty, Styria was made into a margraviate in 1056 and in 1180, also separated from the Duchy of Carinthia to become a Duchy of its own; Per the Georgenberg Pact, the Austrian Duke Leopold V also became Duke of Styria in 1192. After the demise of the Babenberg dynasty (to which Leopold belonged), Styria came briefly under the control of Hungary and later Bohemia. During this time, it lost vast parts of its territory, including the former capital Steyr (which would later form a significant part of the emerging "Duchy of Austria above the Enns" or Upper Austria), as well as Pitten (now the southeastern part of Lower Austria). When the Habsburgs reunified Austria in 1282, Pitten was returned to Styria until the 16th century when Austria finally annexed it. During this time, Styria formed the central part of Inner Austria.
Styria developed economically under Archduke John of Austria, the so-called "Styrian Prince", between 1809 and 1859.
In 1918, after World War I, the Duchy of Styria was partitioned broadly along ethnic lines (, though where mixed, the defeated Austrian side lost the lands in question to Yugoslavia, such as the majority German-speaking Abstall basin,) into a northern part, constituting the Austrian state of Styria, as well as the continuation of the Styrian state altogether, and a southern one, traditionally called Lower Styria, though Lower Styria does not exist as any political entity and is only a traditional term. As a result of the turbulence of two world wars, the German language-speaking population of Lower Styria, which had mainly been concentrated in the cities, particularly the so-called "Festungsdreieck" (fortress-triangle) of Maribor (Marburg an der Drau), Celje (Cilli) and Ptuj (Pettau) migrated from the region or was expelled.
In 2004, Styria had the strongest economic growth rate in Austria at 3.8%—mainly due to the Graz area, which saw strong economic growth that year and has continued to grow in economic and population terms since then.
Styria is home to more than 150 clean technology companies of which one dozen are world technology leaders in their field. The revenue of Styrian cleantech companies totals €2.7 billion. This equals 8 percent of the gross regional product (GRP) and is one of the highest concentrations of leading clean technology companies in Europe. The companies have an average (real) growth rate of 22 percent per year—well above the worldwide cleantech market growth of 18 percent per year. The region created roughly 2,000 additional green jobs in 2008 alone.
The Formula One Austrian Grand Prix has been held in the region, first at the Zeltweg Airfield in 1964 and then at the Osterreichring from 1970 to 1987. The sport returned to the circuit, now redesigned and rebranded as the A1-Ring, from 1997 to 2003. Formula One once again returned to the circuit, now renamed the Red Bull Ring, in 2014 and has been held at the track every year since. The COVID-19 pandemic saw the 2020 Formula One calendar massively revised, resulting in the Red Bull Ring becoming the first circuit to host consecutive Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, with the first round running under the Austrian Grand Prix name and the second held as the Styrian Grand Prix. This continued in 2021.
Styria is served by Graz Airport which provides direct routes to Vienna and some other European destinations. The airport had received around 820,000 passengers in 2024.
| Graz | Graz (statutory city) | 298,623 |
| Leoben | Leoben District | 25,140 |
| Kapfenberg | Bruck-Mürzzuschlag | 22,182 |
| Bruck an der Mur | Bruck-Mürzzuschlag | 15,970 |
| Feldbach | Südoststeiermark | 13,421 |
| Leibnitz | Leibnitz | 13,014 |
| Knittelfeld | Murtal District | 12,781 |
| Gratwein-Straßengel | Graz-Umgebung | 12,770 |
| Seiersberg-Pirka | Graz-Umgebung | 12,112 |
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bar:1869 from:0 till: 721 text: 720,809
bar:1880 from:0 till: 777 text: 777,453
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bar:1900 from:0 till: 890 text: 889,017
bar:1910 from:0 till: 958 text: 957,610
bar:1923 from:0 till: 979 text: 978,816
bar:1934 from:0 till:1015 text:1,014,920
bar:1939 from:0 till:1015 text:1,015,054
bar:1951 from:0 till:1109 text:1,109,335
bar:1961 from:0 till:1138 text:1,137,865
bar:1971 from:0 till:1195 text:1,195,023
bar:1981 from:0 till:1187 text:1,186,525
bar:1991 from:0 till:1185 text:1,184,720
bar:2001 from:0 till:1183 text:1,183,303
bar:2011 from:0 till:1211 text:1,210,614
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text:"Source: Statistik Austria"
The governor (Austrian political term: Landeshauptmann) of Styria was, except from 2005 until 2015 and since 2024, always an ÖVP politician.
In the 2021 municipal election in Graz, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) surprisingly took over first place from the ÖVP, thus pushing long-time mayor Siegfried Nagl (ÖVP) out of office. The result was noted internationally. Elke Kahr led the KPÖ for a third time in the 2021 Graz local election. Despite opinion polling suggesting a victory for the ruling ÖVP, the KPÖ became the largest party with 28.8% of votes and 15 seats. After the election, the KPÖ entered into coalition talks with The Greens – The Green Alternative and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). On November 13, 2021, the KPÖ, the Greens and the SPÖ announced their coalition: Graz gets a communist mayor with Elke Kahr.
In subsequent elections in 2010 and 2015, the SPÖ, the ÖVP, and the KPÖ each lost between one fourth and one third of their shares of the vote relative to 2005. The FPÖ grew from 4.6 percent to 26.8 percent.
In the last state election in 2024, the far-right Freedom Party reached first place for the first time with 34.8 percent of the vote. The current government of Styria is a coalition of FPÖ and ÖVP. The governor, Mario Kunasek, is a representative of the FPÖ. His deputy, Manuela Khom, is a ÖVP member.
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