Country guide · Austria
Moving to Austria: cost of living, salaries, taxes, visas
EU member with the Red-White-Red points card; Vienna anchors a high quality-of-life relocator scene; tax burden similar to Germany.
Austria sits inside the EU and Schengen, with the Red-White-Red card serving as the country's signature points-based skilled-migrant route for non-EU candidates. Vienna's quality of life, central location, and mid-range cost make it one of the most popular EU-internal destinations.
There is no broad special expat tax regime — standard progressive income tax applies, with effective rates among the higher end of the EU once social-security contributions are included. Austrian bureaucracy is famously paperwork-heavy but well-documented.
Data signals
What the numbers say about Austria
The take-home math
Take-home pay in Austria is shaped by a roughly 33% effective payroll deduction (income tax + social security), with VAT at 20%.
The main hub
Its primary hub, Vienna, carries a cost index of 40 (New York = 100).
Cost spread within the country
Across the 2 Austria cities we track, the cost index spans 38 (Salzburg) to 40 (Vienna).
Official price-level cross-check
Eurostat puts Austria's consumer price level at 119.7 (EU27 = 100, 2024) — above the EU average. Source: Eurostat.
See the per-basket monthly breakdown below for how each category compares to the EU average.
Economy
Inflation and jobs in Austria
Consumer prices rose 3.5% in 2025, averaging 4.5% a year across 2020–2025 — a mean pulled up by the 8.6% of 2022, so the 2025 rate is the better guide to today.
A missing year in a series means the source reported no observation, not zero. From the World Bank (World Development Indicators, updated 2026-07-13).
Average wage
Average salary in Austria
The average annual wage in Austria is about $75,767 (PPP-adjusted US$), per the OECD (2024). PPP-adjusted means it's comparable across countries on what the money actually buys — the OECD-wide average is ~$61,000. Source: OECD.
This is a country-wide figure. For what you actually need to earn in a specific city, see the salary-by-lifestyle breakdown on each city's cost-of-living page.
See take-home pay in Austria after tax → or compare with another country.
Monthly budget by basket
What each category costs in Vienna
Our estimated monthly spend per category in Vienna, cross-checked against the official Eurostat price level for that basket (EU27 = 100, 2024). The price level says whether Austria is dear or cheap for that basket regardless of how much a household happens to buy.
| Category | Est. monthly | Eurostat price level | vs EU average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing | 1,161 EUR | 113.3 | +13% above EU avg |
| Food (groceries) | 392 EUR | 110.5 | +11% above EU avg |
| Transport | 51 EUR | 109.1 | +9% above EU avg |
| Healthcare | 34 EUR | 148.4 | +48% above EU avg |
| Dining & leisure | 280 EUR | 110 | +10% above EU avg |
Monthly figures are Mundevo estimates for Vienna; price levels are official Eurostat data (dataset prc_ppp_ind). Source: Eurostat. Dining & leisure is proxied against Eurostat's restaurants & hotels basket.
At a glance
Austria relocation profile
Vs the catalog average
Is Vienna cheap or expensive, relatively?
Vienna's cost and rent index against the mean across every city Mundevo covers.
Index base: New York = 100. Catalog average is the unweighted mean across all cities Mundevo tracks, recomputed on every build.
Tax and visa landscape
Headline tax model + entry-point visa overview for relocators.
- Effective income tax: 15.0%
- Social security (employee): 18.0%
- Total payroll deduction: 32.9%
- VAT: 20.0%
- Currency: EUR
Effective rates assume a single salaried filer at country median wage. Special regimes (e.g. expat-favoring schemes) are not applied here — see the visa guide for those.
Visa categories, residency routes, and tax-regime context for relocators are detailed in the dedicated visa guide.
Austria visa guide →Salary bands at Vienna — by role
Illustrative gross-salary bands for 6 senior IC roles in Vienna. Derived from NYC anchor × Austria pay-tier multiplier. Cross-check Levels.fyi, Glassdoor before negotiating.
| Role | P25 | P50 | P75 | NYC anchor (P50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | €64,588 | €80,178 | €102,450 | $180,000 |
| Product manager | €66,815 | €86,860 | €115,813 | $195,000 |
| UX / product designer | €48,998 | €64,588 | €86,860 | $145,000 |
| Marketing manager | €42,316 | €57,906 | €77,951 | $130,000 |
| Data scientist | €60,134 | €77,951 | €102,450 | $175,000 |
| Finance analyst | €53,898 | €75,947 | €107,795 | $155,000 |
Top relocation corridors
Closest peers by cost-of-living index — the moves most commonly considered alongside Austria.