Survey among expats

Austria: Quality of life high, people grumpy

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/www.epiximages.com)

Expats, i.e. foreigners living here who are not naturalized citizens, have mixed feelings about Austria: while the quality of life is a source of enthusiasm, the population is less popular. In the sub-category "local friendliness", the Alpine republic was ranked 52nd from last in a survey of 12,500 people by "Expat Insider".

Overall, Austria came 24th out of 53 countries in the ranking. However, there was a top ranking in the quality of life category (second place). Since 2014, Austria has regularly been among the top ten countries in this index and, according to Expat Insider, shines in four of the five subcategories: "Travel & Transport" (second place), "Environment & Climate" (third place), Healthcare (ninth place) and Security (tenth place).

Austrians unfriendly towards non-natives
Settling in Austria, on the other hand, is a challenge for expats - accordingly, the Alpine republic only landed in 49th place here. Making friends is not easy either: Austria came 42nd in this sub-category. However, 57 percent of respondents agreed that it is difficult to find local friends (41 percent worldwide). 41 percent of expats say that locals are generally not friendly towards foreign residents (20 percent worldwide), and 31 percent did not feel welcome and did not find it easy to adapt to the local culture (17 and 21 percent worldwide respectively).

Language as a major hurdle
The most challenging aspect is the language (43rd place). More than a third of expats (36%) found it difficult to live in Austria without knowing the local language (33% worldwide). Almost two thirds found it difficult to learn the language (40 percent worldwide).