1.1. Contact organisation
Statistics Austria
Federal Ministry of the Interior
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Social Statistics Directorate (Statistics Austria)
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Statistics Austria
Guglgasse 13
1110 Vienna
Austria
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
8 April 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
8 April 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
8 April 2025
3.1. Data description
Enforcement of immigration legislation data (EIL statistics) contain statistical information based on Article 5 and 7 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation (EU) 2020/851 with reference to third-country nationals:
- refused entry at the external border,
- found to be illegally present,
- ordered to leave,
- returned following an order to leave.
3.2. Classification system
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Enforcement of Immigration Legislation statistics
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.5. Statistical unit
Number of persons.
3.6. Statistical population
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.7. Reference area
Austria
3.8. Coverage - Time
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
Number of persons
Calendar quarter and calendar year
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The Federal Statistics Act 2000, Federal Law Gazette I No. 163/1999 as amended, provides the general legal framework and contains the basic provisions for the compilation of federal statistics.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Statistics Austria and the Federal Ministry of the Interior signed a contract regarding the compilation and transmission of statistics to Eurostat in accordance with the Regulation (EC) 862/2007, Articles 4 to 7.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
The Federal Statistics Act 2000, Federal Law Gazette I No. 163/1999 as amended, provides the general legal framework and contains the basic provisions for the compilation of federal statistics. Article 17 of this document regulates confidentiality of statistics.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Statistics Austria receives anonymized data from the Ministry of the Interior and applies the "need2know"-rule, i.e. only staff responsible for this project can access the data. Microdata are not accessible in any form for external users.
8.1. Release calendar
Statistics Austria does not release/publish/disseminate EIL statistics in any form.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable, see 8.1.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not applicable, see 8.1.
Not applicable, see 8.1.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
There are no press releases by Statistics Austria on EIL statistics.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
There are no publications by Statistics Austria on EIL statistics.
EIL statistics are included in the annual publication "Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsstatistik" by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
BMI website -> Fremdenwesen Jahresstatistiken
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
None besides the ESTAT database.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Micro-data are not disseminated.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
There are no other dissemination formats by Statistics Austria on EIL statistics.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Not available.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not available.
11.1. Quality assurance
Continuous quality assessments of data retrievals by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and their division of ICT (Information- and Communication Technology). Quality evaluation cycle between the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Statistics Austria based on the quarterly/annual data exchange.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Data is of good quality as it is taken from entries in the Austrian Central Foreigners Register, which documents each case in Austria. A PIN allows for the linkage of data within the IFA-database. Upon processing of national statistics, general plausibility checks are performed. Some data is also checked at random during the reference year, in order to assess data quality. Any inconsistencies are reported to the competent authorities by means of a clearing house.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
National level:
The EIL statistics produced are regularly used by national administrations: academic researchers and civil society groups working on a wide range of topics including the integration of immigrants, the development and monitoring of national asylum and immigration procedures, and the projection of the future population and labour force.
European and international level:
The main users of EIL statistics are Eurostat, DG Home Affairs and EASO. The statistics are used in several publications of the Commission, as well as in the preparation of regular reports, policy proposals and analysis. The statistics also provide an input to the EMN studies and reports that address specific issues of current policy importance.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No information available.
12.3. Completeness
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall high accuracy: The reported statistics measure accurately the target population because the database includes all cases. Some cases that are entered into the database after data are retrieved for the data submission to Eurostat and therefore missing, which amounts to an underestimation of about 0.1-0.3% in total.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
See table 13.3.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
On the one hand, there is a time span between the event and the availability of the data. Data is loaded into the data warehouse every morning, so we only ever have access to data up to the previous day. This time span cannot be reduced for technical reasons.
On the other hand, there is a time span between data retrieval by the Ministry of the Interior and forwarding the data to Statistics Austria due to internal processes. This time span cannot be reduced for personnel reasons.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
For the reference year 2024, AT was 8 days late to provide dataset EIL Y2 late because Statistics Austria did not received the data from the data provider (Ministry of the Interior) in time for a punctual provision.
All other EIL data sets for 2024 were delivered on time.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Statistics are comparable between geographical areas within Austria.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
See table 15.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
In general, there may be differences between subannual and annual statistics due to subsequent entries and adjustments. For Y3 to Y4.4 the data is created only after final national results are available.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Statistics are consistent within a given dataset.
Since administrative data are used, there are no costs/burden on respondents.
17.1. Data revision - policy
No need for regular revisions of data for Y3 to Y4.4 sent to Eurostat, as they are derived from annual national statistics and created only after final national results are available.
No regular revisions are sent for Y1 and Y2 as well as Y5 to Y6.
17.2. Data revision - practice
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2025’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2025’.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Quarterly and/or annually depending on ESTAT requirements.
18.3. Data collection
National systematic process of gathering data for official statistics.
18.4. Data validation
Validity checks include:
- Checks of totals consistency
- Checks of magnitude of changes over time
- Checking if the double counting cases are excluded
- Checking the consistency between Y2 and Y3 datasets
- Checking the consistency between “TCNs subjects to an obligation to leave”and “TCNs who actually left the territory”.
- Checking the consistency between “TCNs who returned to a Third Country”and “TCNs who actually left the territory”.
18.5. Data compilation
Not applicable.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
No statistical technique applied.
Comment on EIL Y1 reference year 2022: Our first data transmission incorrectly included values for LAND border as we included cases concerning the Austrian national border. Since this should only include cases concerning the Schengen border an Austria does not have a Schengen border, we corrected the data in March 2023.
Comment on EIL Y3: Consistency issue between categories. For each CITIZENSHIP category that records more than 100 persons, the total returned persons should be with maximum 30% more than the persons receiving the decision to return. The reasons for why the Austrian data do not fit into this rule are:
- Particularly in the case of nationals from the Western Balkans, there are often already existing entry/residence bans or return decisions issued some time ago (in some cases with multiple departures), which is why there were more departures than "new" return decisions in 2022.
- According to Austrian law a new return decision for existing entry/residence bans cannot be issued (unless the facts of the case have changed significantly).
- In addition, there are some illegal residents who leave the country voluntarily at the request of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum in order to avoid the issuance of an entry/residence ban. In such cases, return decisions are often issued belatedly.
Enforcement of immigration legislation data (EIL statistics) contain statistical information based on Article 5 and 7 of the Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation (EU) 2020/851 with reference to third-country nationals:
- refused entry at the external border,
- found to be illegally present,
- ordered to leave,
- returned following an order to leave.
8 April 2025
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
Number of persons.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
Austria
Calendar quarter and calendar year
Overall high accuracy: The reported statistics measure accurately the target population because the database includes all cases. Some cases that are entered into the database after data are retrieved for the data submission to Eurostat and therefore missing, which amounts to an underestimation of about 0.1-0.3% in total.
Number of persons
Not applicable.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2025’.
Not applicable, see 8.1.
On the one hand, there is a time span between the event and the availability of the data. Data is loaded into the data warehouse every morning, so we only ever have access to data up to the previous day. This time span cannot be reduced for technical reasons.
On the other hand, there is a time span between data retrieval by the Ministry of the Interior and forwarding the data to Statistics Austria due to internal processes. This time span cannot be reduced for personnel reasons.
Statistics are comparable between geographical areas within Austria.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables EIL 2024’.
