SK · KOSICELocal facts

Living in Košice.

Slovakia's second city and the centre of its east, twenty kilometres from the Hungarian border. Two large universities and a steel works anchor a growing IT and shared-services cluster, and asking rents run about a fifth below Bratislava's. Winters are colder than in the capital and fine-particulate levels markedly higher.

VerifiedAug 21, 2026Updated Aug 21, 2026

Population 222,286

ŠÚ SR DATAcube — Number of the Population by Sex, districts (om7102rr), Košice (districts I–IV)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Population at the end of 2025 for the office's own aggregate SK0422_0425 = Košice (districts I–IV), which is the city proper. Cross-checked two ways in the same database: summing the 22 city wards in the municipalities table (om7101rr) gives exactly 222,286, and the 1 Jan 2026 stock in the cities-by-citizenship table (om3705rr) agrees.
Notes: Read directly from the office's JSON-stat API. The same API returns 480,902 for Bratislava, matching the figure already stored for that city — so the two Slovak cities here are on one basis. Košice has been shrinking slowly: 225,044 at the end of 2023, 223,678 at the end of 2024.

· Europe/Bratislava· Slovakia rules apply

SK · KOSICE

At a glance

The headline numbers for Košice — each with its own source and freshness. A live official figure is not the same as a survey estimate or a 30-year climate normal.

Cost of living

9.7/10

$560/mo

Rent, 1–3 bed

7.1/10

$737–$1,277

/mo

Freelancer tax

5.5/10

27.3%

Safety

8.8/10

1.09/100k

Air quality

5.5/10

16.2 µg/m³

Internet

4.0/10

42 Mbps

English

9.0/10

Very high

Private health

7.3/10

$1,500/yr

What the tags meanofficial — live figure from a government or authorityopen data — open dataset (Eurostat, EEA, M-Lab, UdSC…)survey — survey or index estimatecurated — SettleMetric-assembled estimate — open the source for the method

What it costs you per month

A planning estimate: real asking rent plus a cost-of-living basket scaled to your household. Not a quote.

Household

Lifestyle

Location

Estimated total

$1,298/mo

≈ $15,576 / year

Where it goes

Rent (1-bed)$737
Food & non-alcoholic drinks$147
Utilities (electricity, gas, water, heating)$89
Transport$50
Recreation & culture$46
Miscellaneous$46
Restaurants & hotels$38
Health (out-of-pocket)$34
Clothing & footwear$31
Household goods$30
Alcohol & tobacco$27
Communications$23
Living costs$561

Rent from the asking-rent matrix below. Living costs scale a one-person basket ($561/mo) by household size and lifestyle; the equivalence factors are our assumption. Schooling and one-off setup are excluded.

Cost of living

What a single person spends each month — food, utilities, transport, eating out and the rest — excluding rent.

Typical monthly spending (national average)

Slovak HBS COICOP structure (Eurostat hbs_str_t223) scaled to the non-rent aggregate

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Slovak Household Budget Survey COICOP category shares applied to the ≈€491/mo non-rent base and converted at 1.1399 USD/EUR. Categories sum to the aggregate. National average — Bratislava runs somewhat higher.

total561 USD/mo

01Food & non-alcoholic drinks147 USD

02Utilities (electricity, gas, water, heating)89 USD

03Transport50 USD

04Recreation & culture46 USD

05Miscellaneous46 USD

06Restaurants & hotels38 USD

07Health (out-of-pocket)34 USD

08Clothing & footwear31 USD

09Household goods30 USD

10Alcohol & tobacco27 USD

11Communications23 USD

Slovakia's household-budget basket for a single person, excluding rent. Non-rent costs vary little between cities — the city-specific part is rent, shown under Housing below.

01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)country-level560USD/month, single person, excluding rent9.7

What this measures

Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.

Lower is betterUSD/month, single person, excluding rentre-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Slovak Statistics Office HBS 2024 + Eurostat national accounts

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Eurostat household final consumption €7,730/capita/year (2024) minus the housing/rent component (~24% housing share, rentals/imputed rent removed) → ≈€491/mo non-rent consumption ≈ $560 at 1.1399 USD/EUR. Category split from the Slovak HBS COICOP structure. Cross-checked against 2024 Slovak COICOP shares.

Housing

What it costs to rent, by apartment type and location.

Asking rent by apartment type & location

Deloitte Rent Index Q1 2026 (Košice) + nehnutelnosti.sk listing census

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Mar 31, 2026
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Level from Deloitte's published Košice index (€736/apartment/month, all sizes, energy deposits excluded, Q1 2026); shape from a census of every Košice rental listing on nehnutelnosti.sk taken 2026-08-21 — all 4 room types, all pages, 330 listings, minus 4 bad records (two sale prices in the rental feed, two priced at zero) = 326. Centre is the mestská časť Staré Mesto, outside is the rest of the city by listing id. Cell = median asking rent × 0.8519, the factor that makes the offer-weighted mean of the cells equal Deloitte's €736; converted at 1.1534 USD/EUR (ECB, 2026-08-13). Slovak room counts mapped as in the Bratislava entry: 1-izbový = studio, 2-izbový = 1BR, 3-izbový = 2BR, 4-izbový = 3BR.
Notes: Listings per cell: studio 18 centre / 51 outside, 1BR 52 / 97, 2BR 35 / 55, 3BR 7 / 11. Two cells are deliberately equal. Studios cost the same in Staré Mesto as outside it — student demand is city-wide — and with only 18 four-room rentals on the whole market the centre/outside difference is not resolvable, so both 3BR cells carry the city-wide median. The Deloitte anchor matters: the raw listing snapshot averages €888, about 21% above Deloitte's quarter-long €736, because a one-day snapshot over-represents slow-moving stock, August is the peak of the student letting season, and a third of listings quote a price with utilities folded in while Deloitte strips them out.

Listings per cell: studio 18 centre / 51 outside, 1BR 52 / 97, 2BR 35 / 55, 3BR 7 / 11. Two cells are deliberately equal. Studios cost the same in Staré Mesto as outside it — student demand is city-wide — and with only 18 four-room rentals on the whole market the centre/outside difference is not resolvable, so both 3BR cells carry the city-wide median. The Deloitte anchor matters: the raw listing snapshot averages €888, about 21% above Deloitte's quarter-long €736, because a one-day snapshot over-represents slow-moving stock, August is the peak of the student letting season, and a third of listings quote a price with utilities folded in while Deloitte strips them out.

Apartment	Central	Outside centre
Studio	639 USD/mo	639 USD/mo
1-bedroom	835 USD/mo	737 USD/mo
2-bedroom	1,179 USD/mo	973 USD/mo
3-bedroom	1,277 USD/mo	1,277 USD/mo

Climate

Temperature and rainfall through the year, plus air quality.

Monthly normals — Košice

NOAA/WMO Climatological Standard Normals — Košice Airport (WMO 11968)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: WMO 1991–2020 station normals, NCEI accession 0253808 (public domain), station at 230 m in the Košice basin. Annual mean daily maximum 14.7°C, mean daily minimum 5.2°C, 613 mm of precipitation a year peaking in June and July.
Notes: Continental and more extreme than Bratislava at the other end of the country: January runs about 2°C colder day and night, summer is a shade cooler, and the year is some 40 mm wetter with a pronounced summer maximum instead of Bratislava's even spread.

Daytime high °CNighttime low °CRainfall mm

Average day/night temperature (lines, left axis) and total rainfall (bars, right axis) for each month — 1991–2020 normals. Hover a month for exact figures.

Month by month
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Daytime high °C	1.0°	3.7°	9.9°	16.5°	21.2°	24.8°	26.6°	26.8°	21.2°	14.8°	8.2°	1.8°
Nighttime low °C	-4.8°	-3.6°	0.0°	5.0°	9.6°	13.2°	14.8°	14.6°	10.1°	5.3°	1.2°	-3.3°
Rainfall mm	26	27	24	42	69	88	94	67	50	51	40	36

01Climate comfort6pleasant months/year6.0

What this measures

Number of months whose 1991–2020 climate normals satisfy: mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and monthly precipitation under 150mm. Computed from the city's climate-normals indicator; the raw normals are stored alongside so users can judge by their own taste.

Higher is betterpleasant months/yearre-verified every 3650 days

Curated by SettleMetric

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Months whose normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and precipitation under 150 mm: Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep = 6. One month short of Bratislava's 7 — October's mean daily maximum is 14.8°C here against 15.6°C there, which puts it just the wrong side of the threshold.

02Air quality (PM2.5)16.2µg/m³, annual mean PM2.55.5

What this measures

Annual mean fine-particulate (PM2.5) concentration for the city, latest available year. Anchors follow the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³ → 10) through the EU limit value territory (25 µg/m³ → 2). Preferred source: European Environment Agency city-level air quality data; outside Europe: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database or the national monitoring network.

Lower is betterµg/m³, annual mean PM2.5re-verified every 730 days

Open data

EEA Air Quality e-Reporting — Annual AQ statistics (AirBase and e-Reporting merged), station Košice – Amurská (SK0264A)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Annual mean for 2024 at Košice's only urban-background station, Amurská (SK0264A), 99.4% data coverage, from validated E1a e-Reporting. Urban background is the basis the EEA's own city air quality viewer uses, and the basis the Bratislava entry here cites.
Notes: The city's traffic station, Štefánikova (SK0267A), reads 15.65, so the two-station mean is 15.91 — which is exactly the figure the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 publishes for Košice in 2024, confirming the two sources are the same measurements. The industrial station at Veľká Ida (20.45) sits outside the city next to the steel works and is excluded. Košice is around 3.2× the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³ and above the EU limit of 10 that applies from 2030, though well inside the current limit of 25. Only three Slovak regional capitals have an urban-background station at all, and Košice's is the highest of the three: roughly a third above Bratislava's 11.9–12.4 and above Žilina's 15.5.

Safety

How safe daily life is, from official crime statistics.

01Homicide ratecountry-level1.1intentional homicides per 100,000/year8.8

What this measures

Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).

Lower is betterintentional homicides per 100,000/yearre-verified every 730 days

Open data

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Completed homicides; low by global standards. UNODC latest (2023): 1.12 per 100k. No city-level series is published.

Crime by offence typecountry-levelpolice-recorded per 100,000 · 2024

Eurostat — police-recorded offences by category (crim_off_cat, ICCS, unit P_HTHAB)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 12, 2026
Notes: Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary 0501, drug offences 0601, serious assault 020111, sexual violence 0301, robbery 0401). Intentional homicide (1.09, same Eurostat 2024 series) is the scored safety headline shown separately. Recording practices and legal definitions differ between countries, so read the levels as context, not a league table.

01Theft143per 100k

02Burglary61.4per 100k

03Drug offences23.7per 100k

04Serious assault21.5per 100k

05Sexual violence10.8per 100k

06Robbery5.7per 100k

Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (ICCS categories: theft 0502, burglary 0501, drug offences 0601, serious assault 020111, sexual violence 0301, robbery 0401). Intentional homicide (1.09, same Eurostat 2024 series) is the scored safety headline shown separately. Recording practices and legal definitions differ between countries, so read the levels as context, not a league table.

Hate crime (police-recorded)country-levelpolice-recorded · 2024

OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Reporting — Slovakia (official police-recorded)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: OSCE ODIHR 2024: 11 hate crimes recorded by police (Article 140(e) bias-indicator cases), 4 itemized as racist/xenophobic — a sharp drop from 46 in 2023. The bias breakdown counts motivations, not incidents. Not comparable across countries.

recorded by police

racist / xenophobic

OSCE ODIHR 2024: 11 hate crimes recorded by police (Article 140(e) bias-indicator cases), 4 itemized as racist/xenophobic — a sharp drop from 46 in 2023. The bias breakdown counts motivations, not incidents. Not comparable across countries.

Infrastructure

Internet speed and how parcels get to your door.

01Domestic delivery qualitycountry-levelGood7.0

What this measures

Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Packeta / Slovenská pošta / carrier pages (composite)

Data as of: Jul 3, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Packeta Z-BOX (~2,200 lockers + ~1,200 pickup points, expanding), Slovenská pošta (~1,550 offices), GLS/DPD/SPS/DHL nationwide; typical 1–2 day domestic delivery, next-day common in cities. Dense but the locker network is smaller than Poland's InPost → good, not excellent.

02International delivery easecountry-levelMinor friction7.0

What this measures

Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Official source

European Commission — removal of the €150 customs duty exemption (Reg. EU 2026/382)

Data as of: Jul 1, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Intra-EU shipping is frictionless. Non-EU imports: the €150 duty-free threshold was removed on 2026-07-01 — a temporary flat €3/item duty applies to ≤€150 IOSS consignments; VAT collected at checkout via IOSS.

03Internet speedcountry-level42Mbps, median fixed download4.0

What this measures

Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.

Higher is betterMbps, median fixed downloadre-verified every 365 days

Open data

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Slovakia

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Median of M-Lab NDT daily country medians, 2023 (latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API).
Notes: M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion.

Healthcare

What comprehensive private medical cover costs.

01Private healthcare costcountry-level1,500USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old7.3

What this measures

Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.

Lower is betterUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldre-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Union SAFETY / UNIQA / Wüstenrot commercial health plans — market midpoint; insurers quote on request

Data as of: Jul 3, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Commercial/expat comprehensive health insurance (Union SAFETY, UNIQA, Wüstenrot) runs ≈€80–200/month depending on age and coverage. Healthy-35-year-old lower-mid ≈ €110/mo ≈ $1,500/yr (range ≈ $1,095–$2,740). Premiums are quoted on request, so this is a curated market midpoint, not a public engine quote.
Notes: Residents are covered by mandatory public health insurance; commercial comprehensive cover (Union SAFETY etc.) is mainly bought by foreigners not yet in the public system. Slovakia lacks a large outpatient-subscription market like Poland's, so other private care is pay-per-visit. Put on the same comprehensive basis as Poland for comparability.

Money & crypto

Crypto rules and how freely personal money moves.

01Crypto regulationcountry-levelLegal friendly10.0

What this measures

Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.

Rated by category—re-verified every 180 days

Official source

Financial Administration SR — income from sale of virtual currency (non-business)

Data as of: Jan 1, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Since 2024, crypto held over one year is taxed at a favourable flat 7% (vs 19/25% if held under a year), with a €2,400/year exemption for crypto used to pay for goods/services, no health-insurance levy on non-business crypto gains, and crypto-to-crypto swaps not taxable. EU MiCA applies; the NBS licenses providers. More favourable than most EU peers, hence legal-friendly.

02Financial control levelcountry-levelLow10.0

What this measures

Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Official source

Ministry of Finance SR — restrictions on cash payments

Data as of: May 1, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Eurozone/EU single market: no capital controls, EUR fully convertible; cash-payment limits €15,000 between individuals / €5,000 when a business is party; standard EU CRS, no FBAR-style foreign-account disclosure; easy resident and non-resident banking.
Notes: From 2026-05-01, eKasa sellers must offer at least one cashless option for payments over €1 (does not ban cash).

Language

How far English gets you in daily life and services.

01English proficiencycountry-levelVery high9.0

What this measures

Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Research

EF EPI 2025 (score 606, rank 10/123 — Very High band)

Data as of: Nov 1, 2025
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). Slovakia's best-ever result; English is broadly workable in cities and the service sector.

Education

International schooling options for families.

01International schools2accredited international schools, count4.0

What this measures

Count of international schools in the metro area accredited by or member of IB, CIS, COBIS, or an equivalent national-curriculum-abroad body (verified against the accreditor's public registry, not aggregator sites).

Higher is betteraccredited international schools, countre-verified every 730 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Aug 21, 2026
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Both schools are in the ministry's register and both teach a foreign curriculum in English: (1) Košice International School (KEIS), Poľná 1, Košice-Košická Nová Ves, register id 710293100 — an IB World School authorised for the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes, and authorised for the Diploma Programme in June 2026, ages 3–17; (2) Splash International, Starozagorská 8, Košice-Sídlisko KVP, register ids 710279213 (primary) and 710267665 (kindergarten) — Pearson Edexcel iPrimary and iLowerSecondary, the English National Curriculum, ages 2–15.
Notes: The register was searched for every school in Košice whose name contains 'International'; these two are the only ones, plus their own kitchens and after-school clubs, which are organisational units rather than separate schools and are not counted. KEIS's IB authorisations could not be read at the accreditor: ibo.org refuses automated requests (HTTP 403) and the Internet Archive holds no snapshot of its page for school code 061988, so the programmes are taken from the school's own statements — its curriculum page still describes the Diploma Programme as a candidacy, while its June 2026 announcement says the authorisation was granted. Splash International is a primary school: it takes children to 15, not to a school-leaving exam.

Demographics

Who else lives here — the share of foreign residents and the largest national communities, from official statistics.

Openness to foreignerscountry-levelReservedGallup MAI 2.52/9 · 2019

What this measures

How accepting the resident population is of migrants and foreigners — the inverse of xenophobia, a real concern for someone relocating. Our own five-band reading (very-open / open / moderate / reserved / low) informed primarily by the Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index (0–9 scale: three questions on migrants living in the country, becoming neighbours, and marrying into the family; 2019 wave), cross-checked where available with the World Values Survey wave 7 / European Values Study 2017 question on whether people would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours (a higher share = more hostile). Banding guide against the Gallup 0–9 score: ≥7.0 very-open, 5.5–7.0 open, 4.0–5.5 moderate, 2.5–4.0 reserved, below 2.5 low (the 2019 global average of 5.21 sits in 'moderate'). Country level only: no credible city-level survey of attitudes to foreigners exists, so on city pages the country reading is shown as country context. Gallup is a research source cited with attribution, not republished in bulk; the raw index score/year and any cross-check figure are carried inside each value. Value shape: { band, gallupMai?, gallupYear?, unwantedNeighborPct?, unwantedNeighborSource? }. Display-only: attitudinal, survey-based and ~2019 vintage, so it is shown as honest context and never folded into the composite score.

Reference data—re-verified every 1825 days

Research

Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index, 2019 update (research, attribution)

Data as of: Sep 23, 2020
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Gallup MAI 2.52/9 (2019 wave, up from 1.83 in 2016) — among the least-accepting countries but improving. Band: reserved (just above the low cutoff).

Who lives therecountry-levelforeign residents 1.3%

ŠÚ SR DATAcube — Population by citizenship and country of birth, cities (om3705rr), Košice

Official source

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: 2,897 foreign nationals of 222,286 residents at 1 Jan 2026 = 1.30%, of whom 1,577 hold EU and 1,320 non-EU citizenship. Foreign-born residents are a separate and much larger group: 10,773, or 4.85%.
Notes: City-proper, population-register basis — the same basis as the Bratislava entry here, so the two are comparable, and like it this excludes most Ukrainians on temporary protection. On that basis Slovakia as a whole is 1.26%, so Košice sits essentially at the national average while Bratislava is more than three times higher at 4.04%. Not comparable with the national 6.65% residence-title figure.

Largest communities of foreign residents360,440 total

Úrad hraničnej a cudzineckej polície (Border & Foreigners Police) — 2025 yearbook, residences by citizenship

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: UHCP yearbook sheets on valid residences by citizenship, 31 Dec 2025; shares = count ÷ 360,440. EU nationals (55,040) are published only as an aggregate, not split by country; 'Other non-EU' = third-country total (305,400) minus the named third-country groups.
Notes: Percentages are of all foreigners with a valid residence title. Ukraine's 212,245 includes 138,826 on temporary protection ('tolerated residence'), plus 55,797 temporary and 17,622 permanent residents. On the narrower population-register basis (Eurostat/ŠÚSR, which excludes most temporary protection) Czechia and Hungary rank above Russia.

01Ukraine58.9%212,245

02EU nationals (all countries)15.3%55,040

03Other non-EU9%32,316

04Serbia4.3%15,482

05Vietnam3.5%12,536

06Russia2.5%9,031

07India2.2%8,040

08Georgia1.1%4,108

09China1%3,510

10North Macedonia0.9%3,066

11Philippines0.7%2,573

12United Kingdom0.7%2,493

Percentages are of all foreigners with a valid residence title. Ukraine's 212,245 includes 138,826 on temporary protection ('tolerated residence'), plus 55,797 temporary and 17,622 permanent residents. On the narrower population-register basis (Eurostat/ŠÚSR, which excludes most temporary protection) Czechia and Hungary rank above Russia.

How you can stay

How you can legally enter and stay. These apply across Slovakia.

All requirements & citizenship filter

What you'd pay in taxes

The tax schemes a freelancer can choose from. Rules are national, the same in Košice as anywhere in Slovakia.

Full schemes & calculator

See what you would keep

Your income against Slovakia's real tax schemes — the same engine as the full calculator.

Annual gross incomeCurrencyper monthBusiness expenses: 0%

1 Živnosť (SZČO), first year — no social insurance yet
51,234 EURnet/year
14.6% burden
2 Passive royalties / licence (§6 ods. 4) — 60% expenses + progressive tax
50,937 EURnet/year
15.1% burden
3 s.r.o. — 10% corporate tax + 7% dividend + self-payer health
48,757 EURnet/year
18.7% burden
4 Živnosť (SZČO) — flat-rate expenses + 15% tax
43,649 EURnet/year
27.3% burden

Who is Košice for?

The same place reads differently depending on why you move. Each lens pulls the facts that matter most for that plan — with sources, and the trade-offs stated plainly.

Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.

Works in your favour

English proficiencyVery high

EF EPI 2025 (score 606, rank 10/123 — Very High band)

Research

Data as of: Nov 1, 2025
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). Slovakia's best-ever result; English is broadly workable in cities and the service sector.

Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$560/mo

Slovak Statistics Office HBS 2024 + Eurostat national accounts

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Eurostat household final consumption €7,730/capita/year (2024) minus the housing/rent component (~24% housing share, rentals/imputed rent removed) → ≈€491/mo non-rent consumption ≈ $560 at 1.1399 USD/EUR. Category split from the Slovak HBS COICOP structure. Cross-checked against 2024 Slovak COICOP shares.

Domestic delivery qualityGood

Packeta / Slovenská pošta / carrier pages (composite)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jul 3, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Packeta Z-BOX (~2,200 lockers + ~1,200 pickup points, expanding), Slovenská pošta (~1,550 offices), GLS/DPD/SPS/DHL nationwide; typical 1–2 day domestic delivery, next-day common in cities. Dense but the locker network is smaller than Poland's InPost → good, not excellent.

Watch-outs

Freelancer tax burden27.3%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (SZČO)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Best eligible scheme sk-szco-pausal at €60,000: 60% flat-rate expenses (capped €20,000) → base €40,000; social+health €13,230; income tax 15% on (€40,000 − €13,230 − €5,967 allowance) = €3,120. Net €43,649 → effective burden ≈ 27.3%. Contributions dominate the burden.

Internet speed42 Mbps

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Slovakia

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Median of M-Lab NDT daily country medians, 2023 (latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API).
Notes: M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion.

Relocating with a partner and school-age children.

Works in your favour

Homicide rate1.09/100k

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Completed homicides; low by global standards. UNODC latest (2023): 1.12 per 100k. No city-level series is published.

Private healthcare cost$1,500/yr

Union SAFETY / UNIQA / Wüstenrot commercial health plans — market midpoint; insurers quote on request

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jul 3, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Commercial/expat comprehensive health insurance (Union SAFETY, UNIQA, Wüstenrot) runs ≈€80–200/month depending on age and coverage. Healthy-35-year-old lower-mid ≈ €110/mo ≈ $1,500/yr (range ≈ $1,095–$2,740). Premiums are quoted on request, so this is a curated market midpoint, not a public engine quote.
Notes: Residents are covered by mandatory public health insurance; commercial comprehensive cover (Union SAFETY etc.) is mainly bought by foreigners not yet in the public system. Slovakia lacks a large outpatient-subscription market like Poland's, so other private care is pay-per-visit. Put on the same comprehensive basis as Poland for comparability.

Watch-outs

International schools2

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Aug 21, 2026
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Both schools are in the ministry's register and both teach a foreign curriculum in English: (1) Košice International School (KEIS), Poľná 1, Košice-Košická Nová Ves, register id 710293100 — an IB World School authorised for the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes, and authorised for the Diploma Programme in June 2026, ages 3–17; (2) Splash International, Starozagorská 8, Košice-Sídlisko KVP, register ids 710279213 (primary) and 710267665 (kindergarten) — Pearson Edexcel iPrimary and iLowerSecondary, the English National Curriculum, ages 2–15.
Notes: The register was searched for every school in Košice whose name contains 'International'; these two are the only ones, plus their own kitchens and after-school clubs, which are organisational units rather than separate schools and are not counted. KEIS's IB authorisations could not be read at the accreditor: ibo.org refuses automated requests (HTTP 403) and the Internet Archive holds no snapshot of its page for school code 061988, so the programmes are taken from the school's own statements — its curriculum page still describes the Diploma Programme as a candidacy, while its June 2026 announcement says the authorisation was granted. Splash International is a primary school: it takes children to 15, not to a school-leaving exam.

Air quality (PM2.5)16.2 µg/m³

EEA Air Quality e-Reporting — Annual AQ statistics (AirBase and e-Reporting merged), station Košice – Amurská (SK0264A)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Annual mean for 2024 at Košice's only urban-background station, Amurská (SK0264A), 99.4% data coverage, from validated E1a e-Reporting. Urban background is the basis the EEA's own city air quality viewer uses, and the basis the Bratislava entry here cites.
Notes: The city's traffic station, Štefánikova (SK0267A), reads 15.65, so the two-station mean is 15.91 — which is exactly the figure the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 publishes for Košice in 2024, confirming the two sources are the same measurements. The industrial station at Veľká Ida (20.45) sits outside the city next to the steel works and is excluded. Košice is around 3.2× the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³ and above the EU limit of 10 that applies from 2030, though well inside the current limit of 25. Only three Slovak regional capitals have an urban-background station at all, and Košice's is the highest of the three: roughly a third above Bratislava's 11.9–12.4 and above Žilina's 15.5.

Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.

Works in your favour

Crypto regulationLegal friendly

Financial Administration SR — income from sale of virtual currency (non-business)

Official source

Data as of: Jan 1, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Since 2024, crypto held over one year is taxed at a favourable flat 7% (vs 19/25% if held under a year), with a €2,400/year exemption for crypto used to pay for goods/services, no health-insurance levy on non-business crypto gains, and crypto-to-crypto swaps not taxable. EU MiCA applies; the NBS licenses providers. More favourable than most EU peers, hence legal-friendly.

Financial control levelLow

Ministry of Finance SR — restrictions on cash payments

Official source

Data as of: May 1, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Eurozone/EU single market: no capital controls, EUR fully convertible; cash-payment limits €15,000 between individuals / €5,000 when a business is party; standard EU CRS, no FBAR-style foreign-account disclosure; easy resident and non-resident banking.
Notes: From 2026-05-01, eKasa sellers must offer at least one cashless option for payments over €1 (does not ban cash).

Watch-outs

Freelancer tax burden27.3%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (SZČO)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Best eligible scheme sk-szco-pausal at €60,000: 60% flat-rate expenses (capped €20,000) → base €40,000; social+health €13,230; income tax 15% on (€40,000 − €13,230 − €5,967 allowance) = €3,120. Net €43,649 → effective burden ≈ 27.3%. Contributions dominate the burden.

Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.

Works in your favour

Homicide rate1.09/100k

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Notes: Completed homicides; low by global standards. UNODC latest (2023): 1.12 per 100k. No city-level series is published.

Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$560/mo

Slovak Statistics Office HBS 2024 + Eurostat national accounts

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 3, 2026
Method: Eurostat household final consumption €7,730/capita/year (2024) minus the housing/rent component (~24% housing share, rentals/imputed rent removed) → ≈€491/mo non-rent consumption ≈ $560 at 1.1399 USD/EUR. Category split from the Slovak HBS COICOP structure. Cross-checked against 2024 Slovak COICOP shares.

Watch-outs

Air quality (PM2.5)16.2 µg/m³

EEA Air Quality e-Reporting — Annual AQ statistics (AirBase and e-Reporting merged), station Košice – Amurská (SK0264A)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Annual mean for 2024 at Košice's only urban-background station, Amurská (SK0264A), 99.4% data coverage, from validated E1a e-Reporting. Urban background is the basis the EEA's own city air quality viewer uses, and the basis the Bratislava entry here cites.
Notes: The city's traffic station, Štefánikova (SK0267A), reads 15.65, so the two-station mean is 15.91 — which is exactly the figure the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 publishes for Košice in 2024, confirming the two sources are the same measurements. The industrial station at Veľká Ida (20.45) sits outside the city next to the steel works and is excluded. Košice is around 3.2× the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³ and above the EU limit of 10 that applies from 2030, though well inside the current limit of 25. Only three Slovak regional capitals have an urban-background station at all, and Košice's is the highest of the three: roughly a third above Bratislava's 11.9–12.4 and above Žilina's 15.5.

Climate comfort6/12 mo

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Aug 21, 2026
Method: Months whose normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and precipitation under 150 mm: Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep = 6. One month short of Bratislava's 7 — October's mean daily maximum is 14.8°C here against 15.6°C there, which puts it just the wrong side of the threshold.