Expats Attest: Vienna Improves across the Board

Infamous for its (perceived) grumpy locals, Vienna still offers expats an excellent quality of life.

Unfriendly, but No Longer the Unfriendliest
Of Language Barriers & House Hunting
The Famed High Quality of Life
Living to Work or Working to Live?
Further Reading
External References

Vienna is the biggest winner in the 2024 Expat City Ranking: it moves up 21 spots to rank 15th out of 53 cities, following 36th place in 2023. This positive development can be seen across all areas of the survey, including expats’ happiness with their life abroad: from 39th place in 2023, it now ranks 17th for this factor.

Unfriendly, but No Longer the Unfriendliest

In 2023, Vienna placed last in the Ease of Settling In Index. A year later, it narrowly escapes the bottom 10 to rank 42nd. Expats are still not happy when it comes to Local Friendliness (51st), but Vienna is at least no longer the unfriendliest city anymore — Berlin (53rd) and Munich (52nd) rank even worse.

“The initial culture shock and relative unfriendliness of some locals can be disheartening at first.” – Dutch expat

Expats don’t feel welcome in Vienna (43rd), and around a quarter (24%) are unhappy with their social life. However, this is already a better-than-average result (29% globally) and a marked improvement from the previous year (40% negative responses in 2023).

Of Language Barriers & House Hunting

Contrary to the situation in many capital cities, finding accommodation is not a huge problem for expats in Vienna (16th). And the city ranks well for housing affordability (10th), too.

However, not all aspects of the Expat Essentials Index (21st) are viewed as favorably. For example, while over half of expats worldwide (56%) agree completely that it’s easy to pay without cash, less than a third (32%) say the same about Vienna. And expats find that learning the local language can be difficult (36th); indeed, 53% share that the language barrier was a main concern prior to their move to Austria.

On the bright side, expats find that access to online services is rarely restricted (16th) and administrative tasks can often be handled online (19th). Good news, since dealing with the local bureaucracy is not necessarily easy (31st).

“Bureaucracy, friendliness, and services could be improved, but this is quite common in any country.” – Russian expat

The Famed High Quality of Life

Vienna regularly finds itself at the top of livability studies (e.g., Mercer’s Quality of Living City Ranking¹, Economist’s Global Liveability Index²) — so its 3rd place in the Quality of Life Index is hardly surprising. Expats love, for example, the affordability (3rd) and availability (2nd) of public transportation, the opportunity to travel (2nd), and both the urban (3rd) and natural (7th) environment.

“I can always find plenty to do outside (e.g., great hiking and cycling right out of the city) and there are loads of inexpensive cultural options.” – US American expat

Vienna indeed ranks 9th for recreational sporting opportunities. Another big bonus? Healthcare! At least four in five expats are happy with its quality (83% vs. 66% globally), availability (84% vs. 68%), and affordability (80% vs. 58%).

Living to Work or Working to Live?

Speaking of affordability: after a brief drop to 16th place in 2023, Vienna returns to rank among the top 10 of the Personal Finance Index in 2024 (10th). Over four in five expats (82%) agree that their disposable household income is enough to lead a comfortable life, with half (50%) even saying it’s more than enough (vs. a global 70% and 41%, respectively). Expats in Vienna are thus satisfied with their financial situation (11th).

Vienna also rose in the ranks of the Working Abroad Index, from 32nd in 2023 to 18th place. Expats find they’re paid fairly for their work (17th), and they enjoy a good work–life balance (16th) — most likely due to the lower-than-average weekly working hours in full-time jobs (40.9 h vs. 42.5 h globally).

And an impressive 84% rate the state of the local economy positively, compared to just 59% of respondents worldwide. This has perhaps helped improve Vienna’s results in the Career Prospects Subcategory (from 40th to 29th). However, the share of expats who find that their relocation to Austria improved their career prospects is still only average (56% agree vs. 56% globally).