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Carinthia (German Kärnten, Slovenian Koroška) is a federal state or Bundesland, located in the south of Austria.
It covers an area of 9,536 km² with 559,404 inhabitants (2001).
It consist mostly of a basin inside the Alps, with the Carnian Mountains making up the border to Italy and Slovenia. The Tauern mountains divide it from Salzburg. To the East lies the state of Styria and it makes up a continuous valley with the eastern part of the Tirol to the West. Its lakes are a major tourist attraction. The main river is the Drau.
The capital is Klagenfurt (Slo. Celovec). The only other important town is Villach (Slo. Beljak) - these two towns are strongly linked economically.
The people are predominantly ethnic Slovenes who speak a unique (and easily recognizable) dialect of German, while in the South-East there is a large number of speakers of Slovene.
The current governor is Jörg Haider of the Austrian Freedom Party.
Austrian Carinthia was historically part of Austria-Hungary, and the Carinthian Plebiscite on October 10, 1920, determined the lines of division between what is today Austria and Slovenia.
See also: Carinthia, Slovenian Carinthia.