Trade sector · July 2026
Density low, the market is shrinking — check the causes before you invest. Density, 13-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 Tischler 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 shrinking slightly since May 2025 (-2.3 % 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
Cabinetmaking (Tischler) is a linked trade (regulated) under GewO 1994 § 94. The trade covers cabinetmaking together with model-making, boatbuilding, coopering, woodturning and wood carving. Proof of qualification is obtained in the classic way through the master craftsman examination after completing a full apprenticeship, or alternatively through an HTL diploma in wood technology plus practical experience, or certain vocational matriculation examinations plus relevant practical experience.
Around 8,300 cabinetmaking trade licences are active across Austria, and a good 500 in Vienna — the market is heavily concentrated in Niederösterreich, Oberösterreich and Steiermark (agricultural structures, an established wood value chain of their own). Cities tend to be under-served, but there specialisation is important (built-in furniture, restoration, kitchen construction — not high-volume cabinetmaking).
Seasonality is milder than in other construction trades. Autumn (September to November) is peak season for kitchens and built-in furniture (finished before Christmas). Spring is the season for outdoor and terrace work. Summer is typically quieter — a good time for workshop projects without deadline pressure.
The mass market for standard furniture is dominated by IKEA, XXXLutz and furniture-import chains. Any cabinetmaker who tries to compete there loses. Successful businesses specialise: custom built-in furniture, restoration, special commissions (Waldorf-kindergarten furniture, orthopaedic chairs, acoustic wall panelling).
Timber prices fluctuate sharply — since 2021, prices for glued laminated timber, oak and plywood have in some cases doubled. Long-term quotes (beyond 3 months) without a material-price clause can push projects into the red. A standard clause in contracts: "material price adjustment where the change exceeds 10 %".
Cabinetmakers suffer from extremely low apprentice numbers. Many master-craftsman businesses cannot find suitable trainees and have to turn work away. Anyone starting out as a master craftsman today should think early about how to solve the question of new talent — without a team, scaling is impossible.
Regulated craft trade under GewO 1994 § 94. Gewerbeschlüssel 7101. Federal guild: WKO Tischler und Holzgestalter.
Insider analysis · Vienna
The typical active business in Vienna is 14 years old (median). 15 % are younger than 3 years, 35 % older than 20 years. Dominant legal form: 58.7 % sole proprietors.
Distribution of age in years across all 543 active locations. Median 14 years · P10–P90 2–36 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 “Tischler” — 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 11 months).
Density per 10,000 inhabitants plus market dynamics over the last 11 months. Sorted by density, descending.
| Federal state | Locations | per 10k | Density | Market dynamics | net 11 mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salzburg → | 771 | 13.4 | Very high | Active market | +0.0 % |
| Tirol → | 991 | 12.7 | Very high | Active market | +0.3 % |
| Kärnten → | 689 | 12.1 | High | Shrinking, volatile | -3.8 % |
| Oberösterreich → | 1,826 | 11.9 | High | Active market | -1.9 % |
| Vorarlberg → | 454 | 11.0 | Medium | Shrinking, volatile | -4.4 % |
| Steiermark → | 1,344 | 10.6 | Medium | Active market | -0.9 % |
| Burgenland → | 273 | 9.1 | Low | Shrinking, volatile | -6.8 % |
| Niederösterreich → | 1,378 | 8.0 | Low | Shrinking, volatile | -2.1 % |
| Wien(here) | 543 | 2.7 | Low | Shrinking, volatile | -2.3 % |
Sorted by Tischler 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 | 10 | 1 | 16,281 | 6.1 | Very high | falling -16.7 % |
| 1150 | Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus | 40 | 2 | 75,902 | 5.3 | Very high | falling -2.4 % |
| 1080 | Josefstadt | 12 | 0 | 24,242 | 5.0 | Very high | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1230 | Liesing | 53 | 1 | 123,714 | 4.3 | Very high | falling -1.9 % |
| 1040 | Wieden | 14 | 0 | 33,444 | 4.2 | Very high | falling -6.7 % |
| 1180 | Währing | 20 | 0 | 51,376 | 3.9 | High | falling -16.7 % |
| 1050 | Margareten | 18 | 1 | 54,581 | 3.3 | High | falling -10.0 % |
| 1060 | Mariahilf | 10 | 0 | 31,083 | 3.2 | High | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1070 | Neubau | 10 | 2 | 31,330 | 3.2 | High | rising +11.1 % |
| 1110 | Simmering | 34 | 0 | 112,149 | 3.0 | High | rising +9.7 % |
| 1120 | Meidling | 30 | 1 | 102,393 | 2.9 | High | falling -3.2 % |
| 1090 | Alsergrund | 12 | 0 | 41,664 | 2.9 | Medium | falling -7.7 % |
| 1160 | Ottakring | 29 | 0 | 102,727 | 2.8 | Medium | falling -6.5 % |
| 1020 | Leopoldstadt | 31 | 0 | 112,675 | 2.8 | Medium | rising +3.3 % |
| 1140 | Penzing | 26 | 1 | 99,049 | 2.6 | Medium | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1170 | Hernals | 14 | 2 | 56,767 | 2.5 | Medium | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1030 | Landstraße | 22 | 1 | 98,881 | 2.2 | Medium | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1130 | Hietzing | 12 | 0 | 56,108 | 2.1 | Low | rising +20.0 % |
| 1210 | Floridsdorf | 37 | 0 | 189,551 | 1.9 | Low | falling -9.8 % |
| 1190 | Döbling | 14 | 1 | 76,074 | 1.8 | Low | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1100 | Favoriten | 40 | 3 | 223,190 | 1.8 | Low | unchanged +0.0 % |
| 1220 | Donaustadt | 40 | 1 | 228,158 | 1.8 | Low | falling -4.8 % |
| 1200 | Brigittenau | 15 | 0 | 86,950 | 1.7 | Low | rising +7.1 % |
Lic. vs. OSM: GISA also counts mobile or home-based businesses without a shop; OSM shows only those with a visible address. Vienna total: 543 licensed vs. ~37 in OSM (17 with postcode, 20 without).
Quick answers to the typical questions about Tischler in Austria.
Optional · if you need more
Everything you see here stays freely accessible — always current, always verifiable. But if you need these figures for your business plan, the bank or your own bookkeeping, there is the Pro Report: a complete PDF report to save, an Excel export of the raw data, 12 months of automatic updates.