Salzburg state stretches along its primary river, the Salzach running from the Central Eastern Alps in the south - reaching a height of at the mountain Großvenediger - down into the Alpine foothills in the north, with an area of . It is located in the north of the country, close to the border with the German state of Bavaria. It is surrounded by the Austrian lands of Upper Austria in the northeast, by Styria in the east, by Carinthia in the south as well as by Tyrol, South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Italy) and East Tyrol in the southwest. With 529,085 inhabitants, it is one of the country's smaller states in terms of population.