Tyrol Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps; in northern Italy and western Austria. The area was to Habsburg times the former County of Tyrol. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1919 divided the area into two parts: With the founding of the European region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino the area has its own legal entity since 2011 in the form of a European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation. According to , the name "Tyrol" derives from a root word meaning "terrain" (i.e. area, ground or soil; compare and Old Irish: "tir"); first from the village of
Vorarlberg the Swiss French in the 19th century by invitation during the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There has been a sizable minority of Turkish descent since the 1960s. 78% of the population are Roman Catholic, which puts Vorarlberg in line with the national Austrian average of 73.6%. The second-largest denomination, with a share of 8.4%, is Islam, mostly Turks. 7,817 (or 2.2%) of Vorarlberg's inhabitants are Protestants. For several years, the Vorarlberg economy has been performing well above the Austrian average. While the overall Austrian GDP in 2004 rose by 2.0% in real terms, Vorarlberg recorded an increase of 2.9%.