VIENNA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Austrian population was over 8.5 million at the beginning of 2014, marking consistent steady growth.

　　The Statistik Austria figures released Wednesday show an increase of 52,990 people over January 2013, almost 10,000 people higher than the year before.

　　The capital Vienna saw 1.4 percent population growth which made up for almost half of all growth across the country, where the increase averaged out at 0.6 percent. The city now has almost 1.8 million residents.

　　Just over a million people in the country are foreigners, according to Statistik Austria, which makes up 12.5 percent of the overall population. Of these, almost half (48.6 percent) are from European Union member states.

　　Austrian citizenships were granted to people from 123 countries, with the highest numbers from Turkey (1108), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1039) and Serbia (824).