Happy Nations #11: Austria

Here is how Austria compares to the United States in each of the six factors for Happiness:

GDP: 1.931 v 1.982
Social Support: 1.165 v 1.182
Healthy Life Expectancy: 0.774 v 0.628
Freedom to Make Life Choices: 0.623 v 0.574
Generosity: 0.193 v 0.220
Perceptions of Corruption: 0.329 v 0.177

Austrians are not very generous. But, at least they live long without much corruption.

Other Scoring Systems

I was surprised to see Austria so low on the HDI and US News. However, their prosperity score gives some hope for improvement over the United States.

Health Care

Public healthcare is available to all Austrian citizens and EU/EEA citizens. According to CEOWorld, Austria is the fourth best healthcare system in the world and #1 among the top 15 happiest countries.

Here is a thorough journal article documenting the differences between the Austrian and American healthcare systems.

Self-employed people are covered under the Act on Social Insurance for the Self-Employed (GSVG) and pay between 10 and 20% of the tariff for outpatient visits.

Taxes fund 75% of the system. Health is a “cost factor” and a significant component of the national economy.

Climate

Two-thirds of the country lives in or around Vienna.

Vienna is similar to St. Louis, except it does not get nearly as hot in the summers and has less rain. It is about five degrees lower for a high most of the year and ten degrees cooler in the summer. The winter lows are slightly higher.

If I can live in St. Louis, I can handle Austria.

Cost of Living

Austr i a i s c h e a p e r t o l i v e i n than the United States.

When we compare Saint Louis, MO, to Vienna, we see that it will cost 12% less to live in Vienna—the most affordable large city yet.

Language

German is Austria’s official language. However, 73% of Austrians speak English, which is also commonly taught at higher levels of education. Therefore, someone would understand us in a major city like Vienna while we learned the language.

Acceptance of Others

Austria has a reputation for not accepting immigrants. However, it recently accepted Ukrainian refugees.

Austria was 49th of 52 countries in “Ease of Settling In.” And known as the second least friendly country

Forty-one percent of the Austrians surveyed say the local population is unfriendly towards foreign residents—over twice the global average.

Nearly half of ex-pats find it challenging to find friends.

Moving Feasibility

Austria is similar to other European countries, making it easy for Europeans to migrate but harder for foreigners. I did not see any retirement-orientated visa options.

There is an opening for highly skilled self-employed workers who help improve or maintain the Austrian economy. Of course, you also need to invest $100K.

Conclusion

Austria is the first hard pass. It barely edges out America in many categories and doesn’t sound accommodating to foreigners. It’s a worse Germany, and I wasn’t that excited about Germany.