Trade sector · August 2026
Below-average density and tangible market movement — a favourable combination. Density, 16-month trend and market movement for every federal state and 23 Vienna districts — recomputed monthly.
Active locations in Vienna
Shortest path to a decision: the three districts with the lowest number of Fleischer businesses per 10,000 inhabitants — on paper the largest market gaps in Vienna (for population ≥ 20,000).
Note: low density is a signal, not a guarantee. Combine it with the market movement above and the OSM visibility below before you commit.
The stock is growing slightly since May 2025 (+3.0 % post method change). For founders the direction is a signal, but not the whole picture — low per-capita density can still spell opportunity if the remaining businesses are overloaded.
Method change May 2025. Before May 2025 the figures come from the annual report (reference-date based), from May 2025 on from the monthly OgdAufrechteGewerbeberechtigung snapshots. The two sources count slightly differently — hence the visible break between April and May 2025. For the churn indicator we use only the clean May-2025-plus window, so the calculation is not distorted by the method jump.
Seasonal fluctuations. Smaller month-to-month movements are normal — trade licences are issued in bursts (month turns, quarter ends) and deregistered (often at year ends). A single month at +5 or −3 is not a trend break.
What a line does not show. The stock is a stock, not a flow. 500 active trade licences at a steady monthly stock can mean: (a) 500 dormant businesses with no movement, or (b) 480 stable plus 20 deregistering this month and 20 newly registering. The churn indicator measures exactly that difference — the curve does not show it.
Why we don't go back further. The GISA dataset only exists in structured form from 2018, before that only as non-anonymised internal data. Annual reports from 2019 could theoretically be integrated — that is a planned expansion. Currently: monthly snapshots since March 2025.
Context
The butcher trade is shrinking in Austria much like bakeries — but more structurally. Kärnten, Steiermark, Vorarlberg and Niederösterreich show clear signs of decline. The reasons are the same supermarket dynamics, plus the long-term drop in per-capita meat consumption and the high regulatory hurdles imposed by EU hygiene regulations.
Even so, there are local growth pockets: organic butchers, pasture-raised butchers and farm direct-sellers all count in the figures, and the niche works even in saturated environments when it is combined with on-farm direct sales or online shipping.
Grilling season (April–August) generates the bulk of revenue. Founding in March makes the most of the ramp-up. Christmas (cold cuts, roast season) is the second peak window.
Meat-processing operations are subject to Verordnung (EG) Nr. 853/2004 (Hygiene-Paket). Sign-off for the cold store, the separation of the mincing room and the wastewater system typically costs 15-30 000 € in Vienna, plus 6-12 months of processing time. Without a pre-financed facility, nothing moves at all.
The monthly energy demand of a functioning butcher shop runs to 4-8 000 €. Swings in electricity prices can put the business model at risk overnight. Long-term energy contracts (2-3 years) are all but mandatory.
The data show decline everywhere, but the remaining operations have higher average margins, because the market is consolidating around the serious providers. The question is not is there demand, but have you already built up the slaughtering capacity, the refrigerated truck and the network of regional farmers.
Regulated trade under GewO 1994 § 94. Gewerbeschlüssel 1901 according to GISA.
Insider analysis · Vienna
The typical active business in Vienna is 7 years old (median). 35 % are younger than 3 years, 26 % older than 20 years. Dominant legal form: 58.3 % registered companies.
Distribution of age in years across all 139 active locations. Median 7 years · P10–P90 0–38 years.
Bars = number of businesses per age-year bucket. Highlighted bar = median age. Small buckets under 5 businesses are suppressed as "·" (GDPR minimum cell size against re-identification).
When were the currently active businesses founded?
Solo (natural person) vs. registered company (GmbH, OG, KG, AG).
The higher the Gini index, the more the sector concentrates in a few postal-code areas. 0 = evenly distributed, 1 = everything in a single postal-code area. Vienna has 23 districts, which split into several postal-code areas.
Complementary signal
Our data shows how many businesses exist. Google Trends adds how often people search for “Fleischerei” — the demand side. Together you see whether a market is constrained by supply or by demand.
Google Trends is a free third-party tool. We store nothing and pass no data on — the link opens directly on trends.google.com in a new tab.
Each dot is a trade sector. Left = lower density per 10,000 residents, top = more movement (registrations and deregistrations over the last 15 months).
Density per 10,000 inhabitants plus market dynamics over the last 15 months. Sorted by density, descending.
| Federal state | Locations | per 10k | Density | Market dynamics | net 11 mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salzburg → | 101 | 1.8 | Very tight | Active market | +1.0 % |
| Burgenland → | 52 | 1.7 | Very tight | Growing, volatile | +4.0 % |
| Oberösterreich → | 251 | 1.6 | Getting tight | Active market | -1.9 % |
| Vorarlberg → | 67 | 1.6 | Getting tight | Shrinking, volatile | -2.9 % |
| Niederösterreich → | 276 | 1.6 | Some room | Shrinking, volatile | -2.8 % |
| Tirol → | 119 | 1.5 | Some room | Active market | -1.6 % |
| Kärnten → | 83 | 1.5 | Room to grow | Shrinking, volatile | -5.7 % |
| Steiermark → | 146 | 1.1 | Room to grow | Active market | -0.7 % |
| Wien(here) | 139 | 0.7 | Room to grow | Growing, volatile | +3.0 % |
Sorted by Fleischer density per 10,000 inhabitants, descending. “Licensed” = GISA trade licences, “OSM” = shop addresses visible in OpenStreetMap, “since May 25” = district net delta post method break (clean signal, without the May-2025 jump).
| Postcode | District | Lic. | OSM | Inh. | per 10k | Density | since May 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1150 | Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus | 14 | 1 | 75,384 | 1.9 | Very tight | rising +7.7 % |
| 1160 | Ottakring | 18 | 6 | 101,599 | 1.8 | Very tight | rising +28.6 % |
| 1230 | Liesing | 15 | 6 | 124,846 | 1.2 | Very tight | falling -6.3 % |
| 1200 | Brigittenau | 10 | 1 | 86,686 | 1.1 | Very tight | rising +11.1 % |
| 1100 | Favoriten | 25 | 4 | 225,013 | 1.1 | Getting tight | rising +8.7 % |
| 1060 | Mariahilf | 3 | 2 | 31,070 | 1.0 | Getting tight | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1120 | Meidling | 9 | 5 | 102,344 | 0.9 | Getting tight | falling -25.0 % |
| 1020 | Leopoldstadt | 9 | 2 | 114,122 | 0.8 | Getting tight | rising +12.5 % |
| 1010 | Innere Stadt | 1 | 4 | 15,879 | 0.6 | Some room | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1130 | Hietzing | 3 | 0 | 56,496 | 0.5 | Some room | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1170 | Hernals | 3 | 1 | 56,652 | 0.5 | Some room | rising +50.0 % |
| 1210 | Floridsdorf | 10 | 5 | 191,527 | 0.5 | Some room | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1140 | Penzing | 5 | 3 | 99,469 | 0.5 | Room to grow | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1110 | Simmering | 5 | 0 | 112,214 | 0.5 | Room to grow | rising +25.0 % |
| 1050 | Margareten | 2 | 1 | 54,060 | 0.4 | Room to grow | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1030 | Landstraße | 3 | 5 | 99,954 | 0.3 | Room to grow | falling -25.0 % |
| 1220 | Donaustadt | 4 | 1 | 235,361 | 0.2 | Room to grow | falling -20.0 % |
Lic. vs. OSM: GISA also counts mobile or home-based businesses without a shop; OSM shows only those with a visible address. Vienna total: 139 licensed vs. ~128 in OSM (53 with postcode, 75 without).
Quick answers to the typical questions about Fleischer in Austria.
Free · no account
Everything on this page — density, trend, market movement, demographics, districts — is calculated from open data and stays freely accessible. No account, no paywall, no tracking. The figures are recomputed every month from the GISA snapshot; the method is written down, and so are its limits.