Vienna is a city.
Vienna ( [ viˈɛnə ] Wien , [ viːn ] ) is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria . Vienna is Austria 's primary city , with a population of about 1.8 million ( 2.6 million within the metropolitan area , nearly one third of Austria 's population ) , and its cultural , economic , and political centre . Until the beginning of the 20th century , it was the largest German-speaking city in the world , and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I , the city had 2 million inhabitants . The UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013 . The city was ranked 1st globally for its culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008 , and sixth globally ( out of 256 cities ) in the 2014 Innovation Cities Index , which analyzed 162 indicators in covering three areas : culture , infrastructure , and markets .