STATSIM: Statistics Austria's dynamic microsimulation model for official population projections.

This article focuses on the transition by Statistics Austria from the traditional cohort-component method to a dynamic microsimulation model, STATSIM, for producing national population projections. While the cohort-component method is widely used due to its simplicity and minimal data requirements, it has limitations in capturing complex demographic processes and individual-level heterogeneity. STATSIM simulates individual life courses using detailed administrative data, incorporating characteristics such as age, sex, province of residence, and country of birth clustered by migration behavior, with a particular emphasis on modeling international migration through duration-dependent emigration hazards. Retrospective comparisons show that STATSIM improves projection accuracy, especially in capturing emigration patterns, and offers potential for future extensions to include socio-economic variables like education and employment.