Cost of Living in Austria
Image credit: simon from Austria
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Austria: $63,788/capita.
Cities in Austria
Income Category
Happiness
6.9 / 10
#14 globally
GDP per Capita
Population
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 29% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Child Education
Public-school quality, expat access, instruction language, and homeschool legality for relocating families.
Public schools
How realistic the local public-school path is for a relocating family in Austria.
Quality
Excellent public schools
Assessment snapshot: 2022
Expat access
Resident families can use it
conditionalInstruction
German
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
491
Above OECD avg
PISA 2022 · OECD avg ~480
Why this quality rating
Austria has a strong public-school backbone, reliable teaching quality, and solid OECD outcomes.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Foreign resident families can usually enroll, but instruction is in German and local catchment rules still matter.
📋 Homeschooling
Legal with annual examsHomeschooling is legal in Austria. Parents must notify the school district before the school year. Students must pass an annual exam (Externistenprüfung) covering the Austrian curriculum. If the child fails, they must attend school.
Homeschool legality in Austria — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Childcare & Domestic Help
Current city samples for the family-support costs we track in Austria.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$2,100
1 tracked city, not a national average
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$4,200
1 tracked city, not a national average
Source: curated family relocation research
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Austria.
Method: country metrics come from public system indicators, facility coverage reflects mapped providers we can inventory, direct pricing only reflects observed self-pay pages, and relative care cost can fall back to broad cost-of-living healthcare indices. Sparse pricing does not imply sparse healthcare availability.
Healthcare system
StrongGood national coverage, strong doctor availability, and deep nursing capacity support this rating.
Public care
StrongBroad public coverage, strong public funding, and relatively low patient cost-sharing support this rating.
Private care
GoodA large tracked hospital and clinic network help, but self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
84/100
2023
Physicians
5.51/1k
2023
Hospital beds
6.70/1k
2022
Out of pocket
16%
2024
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
82.0 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
6/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
2.2/1k
2024
International patient readiness
MixedMultiple facilities have websites and there is visible specialty depth help, but price transparency is still sparse.
Pricing transparency
LimitedMultiple facilities have crawlable websites help, but published self-pay prices are scarce.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in Austria yet.
This usually reflects low online price transparency rather than a lack of healthcare providers.
Notable facilities
System metrics: World Bank WDI · Updated 2026-06-01
Safety & Governance
Street Safety
Source: Numbeo where a city row is matched; otherwise World Bank WGI and country-level safety context.
Political Stability
World Bank WGI scale: -2.5 to +2.5.
Wages by Sector
| Sector | Median |
|---|---|
| Administrative & Support Services | — |
| Agriculture & Farming | — |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | — |
| Construction | — |
| Education | — |
| Finance & Insurance | — |
| Healthcare & Social Work | — |
| Hospitality & Food Service | — |
| Information & Technology | — |
| Manufacturing | — |
| Mining & Quarrying | — |
| Other Services | — |
| Professional & Scientific Services | — |
| Public Administration & Defence | — |
| Real Estate | — |
| Retail & Wholesale Trade | — |
| Transport & Logistics | — |
| Utilities | — |
2024 annual wages in Austria · Source: OECD STAN, ILO ILOSTAT
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders can stay up to 90 days without a visa.
Long-Term Visa Programs
working holiday
Working Holiday VisaAbout Austria
Austria is a high-income European and Central Asian country of 9,177,982 people, with Vienna as the capital and the clearest relocation benchmark. Costs sit in the moderate-to-high band for the region: comfortable living in Vienna is documented at about €1,500–2,500 per month, and housing in major cities can be substantial. The tradeoff is a serious public-service package: world-class healthcare with universal coverage available to residents, excellent education and infrastructure, very low crime, strong emergency services, and widely available 100+ Mbps internet. German is the official language, so daily life is easier for relocators who can operate in it. EU citizens have freedom of movement, while non-EU movers should expect work or residence permit sponsorship to matter. Winters are cold, summers mild, and Alpine areas get heavy snow.
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Common questions about Austria
Sourced from SortaRich's public-data ranking engine — every figure links to its institutional source.
Is Austria a good country to live in?
Austria is a good country to live in per the World Happiness Report (6.9 of 10, ranking #14 globally). Whether it's right for you depends on your priorities — use SortaRich's free quiz to see how Austria ranks for your specific income, family, and visa profile.
Sources: World Happiness Report, SortaRich Methodology
How much does it cost to live in Austria?
The cost of living in Austria is about 29% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), with an overall cost-of-living index of 71. SortaRich personalizes these numbers to your home city's purchasing power so the comparison is real, not nominal.
Sources: SortaRich Cost of Living, World Bank ICP 2021
How far does $1 go in Austria?
$1 goes about 1.2x further in Austria than in the baseline market — your home-country income stretches that much more (current PPP ratio: 1.20). The figure adjusts every year as exchange rates and local prices shift. SortaRich uses World Bank ICP 2021 as the anchor and Penn World Tables 11.0 for cross-validation.
Sources: World Bank ICP 2021, Penn World Tables 11.0
What visa do I need to move to Austria?
To move to Austria you have these visa options: Tourist entry: visa_free (90 days). Visa rules change frequently — confirm the current terms with the official immigration authority before booking flights.
Source: SortaRich Visa Database
What are the best cities to live in Austria?
The best cities to live in Austria are Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck — those are the most-searched options among the 5 cities profiled in the SortaRich database. Each city page includes a personalized PPP comparison versus your home city plus subnational price data where available.
Source: SortaRich City Index