Vienna is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primate city with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria as well as its cultural, economic and political centre. Vienna lies in the east of Austria and is close to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Economist Intelligence Unit study of 127 world cities ranked it third for quality of life.