Trade sector · August 2026
Low density, an active and growing market — a favourable timing window. 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 Kosmetik 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 noticeably since May 2025 (+6.7 % 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 cosmetics trade is the most dynamic segment in the dataset — growing and volatile in seven of nine federal states, and only in Vorarlberg an active market. The drivers are the boom in lash, nail and anti-aging studios, the low capital entry (from around €15,000 for fixtures and product stock), and the comparatively light regulation: the unregulated trade Kosmetik (Schönheitspflege) requires no master craftsman certificate, but does require relevant training.
For founders this means: entry is easier than for a hairdresser or roofer, but competition is growing faster than demand. Anyone starting in 2026 is starting against a market that has moved by roughly 90% of its median stock over the past 11 months.
The strongest month for new openings is traditionally February to March — clients are back from the winter low, and holiday preparations are getting underway. Counter-cyclically: a summer opening is quieter, but the wedding season (May to September) can be the most direct revenue booster for lash and make-up specialists.
Kosmetik (Schönheitspflege) is indeed an unregulated trade, but individual treatments (permanent make-up, microblading, laser therapy) fall under regulated partial trades or are restricted under health law. Anyone offering microblading in a cosmetics studio needs additional qualifications and must meet the operating-facility hygiene requirements.
Growing and volatile in the data means: many come, many go. This sets the cosmetics sector apart from hairdressing businesses with their long survival times. Realistically, founders should set aside 18–24 months of liquidity before the first lease begins — not the 6–12 months that are often recommended.
Cosmetics studios win 60–70% of their clients through social media (Instagram, TikTok). Anyone starting without their own content plan is competing with studios that invest 5–10 hours a week in video and reels. This is a real but often underestimated cost factor.
Unregulated trade Kosmetik (Schönheitspflege) pursuant to the Gewerbeordnung 1994. Gewerbeschlüssel 2001 per GISA.
Insider analysis · Vienna
The typical active business in Vienna is 6 years old (median). 29 % are younger than 3 years, 11 % older than 20 years. Dominant legal form: 88.1 % sole proprietors.
Distribution of age in years across all 1,967 active locations. Median 6 years · P10–P90 0–20 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 “Kosmetikstudio” — 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 → | 888 | 15.5 | Very tight | Growing, volatile | +2.1 % |
| Burgenland → | 378 | 12.5 | Very tight | Growing, volatile | +3.9 % |
| Kärnten → | 699 | 12.3 | Getting tight | Growing, volatile | +6.4 % |
| Steiermark → | 1,448 | 11.4 | Getting tight | Growing, volatile | +10.5 % |
| Oberösterreich → | 1,724 | 11.2 | Some room | Growing, volatile | +6.8 % |
| Tirol → | 860 | 11.0 | Some room | Growing, volatile | +5.1 % |
| Vorarlberg → | 401 | 9.7 | Room to grow | Growing, volatile | +5.0 % |
| Wien(here) | 1,967 | 9.6 | Room to grow | Growing, volatile | +6.7 % |
| Niederösterreich → | 1,626 | 9.4 | Room to grow | Growing, volatile | +4.9 % |
Sorted by Kosmetik 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1010 | Innere Stadt | 205 | 13 | 15,879 | 129.1 | Very tight | rising +4.1 % |
| 1070 | Neubau | 90 | 8 | 31,394 | 28.7 | Very tight | rising +1.1 % |
| 1080 | Josefstadt | 61 | 4 | 24,232 | 25.2 | Very tight | falling -4.7 % |
| 1060 | Mariahilf | 73 | 6 | 31,070 | 23.5 | Very tight | falling -5.2 % |
| 1040 | Wieden | 69 | 6 | 33,450 | 20.6 | Very tight | rising +1.5 % |
| 1090 | Alsergrund | 80 | 3 | 41,782 | 19.1 | Getting tight | rising +17.6 % |
| 1050 | Margareten | 87 | 3 | 54,060 | 16.1 | Getting tight | rising +7.4 % |
| 1030 | Landstraße | 147 | 22 | 99,954 | 14.7 | Getting tight | rising +23.5 % |
| 1130 | Hietzing | 60 | 5 | 56,496 | 10.6 | Getting tight | rising +5.3 % |
| 1150 | Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus | 77 | 6 | 75,384 | 10.2 | Getting tight | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1180 | Währing | 51 | 3 | 51,177 | 10.0 | Getting tight | rising +13.3 % |
| 1020 | Leopoldstadt | 99 | 11 | 114,122 | 8.7 | Some room | rising +11.2 % |
| 1190 | Döbling | 64 | 11 | 76,203 | 8.4 | Some room | rising +3.2 % |
| 1220 | Donaustadt | 179 | 16 | 235,361 | 7.6 | Some room | rising +13.3 % |
| 1120 | Meidling | 73 | 4 | 102,344 | 7.1 | Some room | rising +10.6 % |
| 1210 | Floridsdorf | 121 | 3 | 191,527 | 6.3 | Some room | rising +5.2 % |
| 1230 | Liesing | 78 | 6 | 124,846 | 6.3 | Some room | rising +1.3 % |
| 1140 | Penzing | 62 | 2 | 99,469 | 6.2 | Room to grow | rising +6.9 % |
| 1160 | Ottakring | 61 | 0 | 101,599 | 6.0 | Room to grow | falling -1.6 % |
| 1200 | Brigittenau | 47 | 2 | 86,686 | 5.4 | Room to grow | rising +23.7 % |
| 1100 | Favoriten | 113 | 3 | 225,013 | 5.0 | Room to grow | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1110 | Simmering | 48 | 4 | 112,214 | 4.3 | Room to grow | rising +9.1 % |
| 1170 | Hernals | 22 | 0 | 56,652 | 3.9 | Room to grow | rising +10.0 % |
Lic. vs. OSM: GISA also counts mobile or home-based businesses without a shop; OSM shows only those with a visible address. Vienna total: 1,967 licensed vs. ~510 in OSM (141 with postcode, 369 without).
Quick answers to the typical questions about Kosmetik 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.