CITY / CITYComparación de ciudades verificada
Viennavs.Washington, D.C..
Washington, D.C. sale mejor en 5 de 8 datos principales; Vienna, en 3. Cost of living (single, excl. rent): Vienna $1973/mo, Washington, D.C. $1741/mo. Freelancer tax burden: Vienna 29,4%, Washington, D.C. 18,1%. Climate comfort: Vienna 6/12 mo, Washington, D.C. 4/12 mo.
Verificado
14 criterios comparados · 30 fuentes · los datos de país aparecen marcados como heredados
at / us · SettleMetric
01
Las diferencias clave
Las cifras clave cara a cara, con el lado más fuerte señalado. La puntuación global es decorativa; lo que importa es qué datos encajan contigo.
Resultado principal
Washington, D.C. va por delante en 5 de 8
Vienna
3
Washington, D.C.
5
01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Vienna
$1973/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 30 jun 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Konsumerhebung 2024/25 average all-household consumption €4,170/mo ÷ household size 2.17 = €1,922 per-capita; minus per-capita housing rentals (COICOP 041 actual €235 + 042 imputed €379 = €614/hh → €283/capita) = €1,639/mo excl rent; ×1.0562 CPI uplift to mid-2026 ×1.1399 USD = $1,973. Per-capita basis to match the other countries; a single-person household alone spends more (~$2,657).
Washington, D.C.mejor
$1741/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notas
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
02Freelancer tax burden
Vienna
29,4%
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (BMF Einkommensteuer, SVS/GSVG)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme at €60,000 revenue, 0 expenses = Basispauschalierung: 15% expense lump-sum (9,000) → profit 51,000; Grundfreibetrag capped 4,950; SVS 26.83% of 46,050 = 12,355; accident 156; income tax on 33,539 (less 13,539 allowance) = 5,155. Levies 17,666 → 29.44%. The standard actual-expenses route with no expenses runs ~37%, the GmbH all-dividends chain ~44%.
Washington, D.C.mejor
18,1%
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notas
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
03Homicide rate
Viennamejor
0,85/100k
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (0.61 in 2020 rising to 0.85 in 2024). UNODC/World Bank report ~0.88 for 2023. Very safe by international standards.
Washington, D.C.
5,1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
04Climate comfort
Viennamejor
6/12 mo
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precipitation < 150mm: Apr (17.2), May (20.7), Jun (25.1), Jul (26.4), Aug (26.1), Sep (21.1) = 6 (Oct just misses at 14.3°C).
Washington, D.C.
4/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Washington Reagan National 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: April, May, September, October = 4. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.5–32°C), November to March for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
- Notas
- The lowest count in this dataset's US coverage, and the metric flatters the city slightly at both ends: it does not account for humidity, which makes a 32°C July afternoon in Washington harder work than a dry 32°C elsewhere.
05Internet speed
Vienna
32 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Austria
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Median of the 2023 daily country medians (2.78M download tests — 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; monthly medians ranged ~28.6–33.3 Mbps).
- Notas
- M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures (Austrian fixed broadband commonly markets 100–1000 Mbps) — comparable only within this criterion.
Washington, D.C.mejor
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notas
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
06English proficiency
Vienna
Very high
EF EPI 2025 — Austria (rank 3/123, score 616, Very High band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Austria ranked #3 globally and #1 in Europe, score 616 (Very High / C1 band). English is broadly workable in Vienna and the tech, service and academic sectors; German remains the sole official language and matters for administration and integration requirements.
Washington, D.C.mejor
Native
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
07Private healthcare cost
Viennamejor
$1368/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Supplementary Sonderklasse cover (hospital special class + free choice of doctor) on top of the mandatory public ÖGK, healthy 35-year-old: market midpoint ≈ €100/mo = €1,200/yr → ≈ $1,368 at 1.1399 USD/EUR. Range ≈ $889 (basic, with deductible) to ≈ $2,599 (premium).
- Notas
- Austria has mandatory public health insurance (ÖGK, ~7.65% of income, shared) covering everyone in the system; unlike countries with full private replacement plans, the private market here is supplementary (Zusatzversicherung), so this is the top-up Sonderklasse premium, not a full-replacement policy. Adding an outpatient Privatarzt module (€40–145/mo) raises a full package to ≈ €150–250/mo.
Washington, D.C.
$8892/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 15 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notas
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
08Air quality (PM2.5)
Vienna
10 µg/m³
Stadt Wien — Luftgütebericht 2024, Feinstaub PM2.5 (MA22 / Umweltbundesamt network)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Average of the Vienna network's 2024 annual means; valid stations ranged 9 (Lobau) to 11 (Taborstraße) µg/m³. The EU limit (25 µg/m³) was met at every station; 2024 was among the cleanest years in two decades.
- Notas
- About 2× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) but well under the EU limit. Winter heating and traffic are the main sources.
Washington, D.C.mejor
6,4 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notas
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
02
¿Qué ciudad encaja con tu plan?
Cada perspectiva pondera solo los datos que importan a ese plan y dice a qué lado favorece.
Informática remota / autónomo
Contrato o trabajo por cuenta propia en tecnología, facturando a clientes de fuera.
Washington, D.C. encaja mejor: 4 de 5
01Freelancer tax burden
Vienna
29,4%
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (BMF Einkommensteuer, SVS/GSVG)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme at €60,000 revenue, 0 expenses = Basispauschalierung: 15% expense lump-sum (9,000) → profit 51,000; Grundfreibetrag capped 4,950; SVS 26.83% of 46,050 = 12,355; accident 156; income tax on 33,539 (less 13,539 allowance) = 5,155. Levies 17,666 → 29.44%. The standard actual-expenses route with no expenses runs ~37%, the GmbH all-dividends chain ~44%.
Washington, D.C.mejor
18,1%
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notas
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
02Internet speed
Vienna
32 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Austria
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Median of the 2023 daily country medians (2.78M download tests — 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; monthly medians ranged ~28.6–33.3 Mbps).
- Notas
- M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures (Austrian fixed broadband commonly markets 100–1000 Mbps) — comparable only within this criterion.
Washington, D.C.mejor
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notas
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
03English proficiency
Vienna
Very high
EF EPI 2025 — Austria (rank 3/123, score 616, Very High band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Austria ranked #3 globally and #1 in Europe, score 616 (Very High / C1 band). English is broadly workable in Vienna and the tech, service and academic sectors; German remains the sole official language and matters for administration and integration requirements.
Washington, D.C.mejor
Native
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
04Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Vienna
$1973/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 30 jun 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Konsumerhebung 2024/25 average all-household consumption €4,170/mo ÷ household size 2.17 = €1,922 per-capita; minus per-capita housing rentals (COICOP 041 actual €235 + 042 imputed €379 = €614/hh → €283/capita) = €1,639/mo excl rent; ×1.0562 CPI uplift to mid-2026 ×1.1399 USD = $1,973. Per-capita basis to match the other countries; a single-person household alone spends more (~$2,657).
Washington, D.C.mejor
$1741/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notas
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
05Domestic delivery quality
Vienna
Excellent
Österreichische Post AG — self-service / pickup network (post.at)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Austrian Post runs a very dense last-mile network: ~640 self-service pickup stations, ~120,000 pickup boxes and ~77,500 post boxes, with next-business-day standard parcel delivery; via the myflexbox cooperation (~550 shared stations) about 80% of all Austrian parcels can be received in one locker infrastructure. DHL, DPD, GLS and Hermes also deliver nationwide. Dense, fast, reliable → excellent.
Washington, D.C.
Excellent
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.
- Notas
- Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.
Familia
Mudarse con pareja e hijos en edad escolar.
Muy reñido para este plan
01International schools
Vienna
8
Accreditor registries (IB World Schools, AEFE) — per-school verification
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Vienna-metro schools each confirmed against a qualifying accreditor: (1) Vienna International School — IB; (2) American International School Vienna — IB DP + US/MSA; (3) Danube International School Vienna — IB; (4) AMADEUS International School Vienna — IB + CIS; (5) International Christian School of Vienna — IB DP; (6) Gymnasium Klosterneuburg International School — IB; (7) International Highschool Herzogberg (Perchtoldsdorf) — IB; (8) Lycée Français de Vienne — AEFE-homologated. Aggregator sites were used only to find candidates.
- Notas
- Verified FLOOR of 8 (7 IB World Schools + 1 AEFE French school). KIS (Klosterneuburg) and Herzogberg (Perchtoldsdorf) sit just outside the city line but within the metro; strictly in-city the count is 6. Additional schools may hold qualifying accreditation but were not each individually verified this cycle.
Washington, D.C.
sin datos verificados
02Homicide rate
Viennamejor
0,85/100k
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (0.61 in 2020 rising to 0.85 in 2024). UNODC/World Bank report ~0.88 for 2023. Very safe by international standards.
Washington, D.C.
5,1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
03Private healthcare cost
Viennamejor
$1368/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Supplementary Sonderklasse cover (hospital special class + free choice of doctor) on top of the mandatory public ÖGK, healthy 35-year-old: market midpoint ≈ €100/mo = €1,200/yr → ≈ $1,368 at 1.1399 USD/EUR. Range ≈ $889 (basic, with deductible) to ≈ $2,599 (premium).
- Notas
- Austria has mandatory public health insurance (ÖGK, ~7.65% of income, shared) covering everyone in the system; unlike countries with full private replacement plans, the private market here is supplementary (Zusatzversicherung), so this is the top-up Sonderklasse premium, not a full-replacement policy. Adding an outpatient Privatarzt module (€40–145/mo) raises a full package to ≈ €150–250/mo.
Washington, D.C.
$8892/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 15 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notas
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
04Air quality (PM2.5)
Vienna
10 µg/m³
Stadt Wien — Luftgütebericht 2024, Feinstaub PM2.5 (MA22 / Umweltbundesamt network)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Average of the Vienna network's 2024 annual means; valid stations ranged 9 (Lobau) to 11 (Taborstraße) µg/m³. The EU limit (25 µg/m³) was met at every station; 2024 was among the cleanest years in two decades.
- Notas
- About 2× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) but well under the EU limit. Winter heating and traffic are the main sources.
Washington, D.C.mejor
6,4 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notas
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
05English proficiency
Vienna
Very high
EF EPI 2025 — Austria (rank 3/123, score 616, Very High band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Austria ranked #3 globally and #1 in Europe, score 616 (Very High / C1 band). English is broadly workable in Vienna and the tech, service and academic sectors; German remains the sole official language and matters for administration and integration requirements.
Washington, D.C.mejor
Native
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
Dinero y cripto
Optimizar impuestos, banca y normas sobre cripto.
Muy reñido para este plan
01Crypto regulation
Vienna
Legal regulated
BMF — Tax treatment of crypto-assets (Ökosoziale Steuerreform, from 1 March 2022)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2022
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Holding and trading are legal. Since the eco-social tax reform (effective 1 March 2022), crypto income — current income (staking, lending) and realized capital gains — is taxed as income from capital assets at the special flat rate of 27.5% (§27a EStG), whether withheld as KESt or assessed via return. Crypto acquired before 1 Feb 2021 is grandfathered 'Altbestand'. EU MiCA and DAC8 reporting apply. A clear statutory tax plus the EU regulatory framework make this 'legal-regulated'.
Washington, D.C.
Legal regulated
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.
02Financial control level
Viennamejor
Low
EU Anti-Money-Laundering Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 + Austrian FM-GwG
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Composite: EUR is fully convertible with no capital/exchange controls (EU/eurozone, free movement of capital under Art. 63 TFEU). Austria has no general national cash-payment cap; a harmonised EU-wide €10,000 cash limit takes effect 10 July 2027 (AMLR 2024/1624, not yet in force). Identity checks apply from €10,000 (CDD from €3,000). Non-resident banking available with standard KYC. Low state control over personal money flows.
Washington, D.C.
Moderate
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.
- Notas
- The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.
03Freelancer tax burden
Vienna
29,4%
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (BMF Einkommensteuer, SVS/GSVG)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme at €60,000 revenue, 0 expenses = Basispauschalierung: 15% expense lump-sum (9,000) → profit 51,000; Grundfreibetrag capped 4,950; SVS 26.83% of 46,050 = 12,355; accident 156; income tax on 33,539 (less 13,539 allowance) = 5,155. Levies 17,666 → 29.44%. The standard actual-expenses route with no expenses runs ~37%, the GmbH all-dividends chain ~44%.
Washington, D.C.mejor
18,1%
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notas
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
Vida tranquila
Priorizar la seguridad, el aire y una vida diaria sencilla.
Muy reñido para este plan
01Homicide rate
Viennamejor
0,85/100k
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (0.61 in 2020 rising to 0.85 in 2024). UNODC/World Bank report ~0.88 for 2023. Very safe by international standards.
Washington, D.C.
5,1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
02Air quality (PM2.5)
Vienna
10 µg/m³
Stadt Wien — Luftgütebericht 2024, Feinstaub PM2.5 (MA22 / Umweltbundesamt network)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Average of the Vienna network's 2024 annual means; valid stations ranged 9 (Lobau) to 11 (Taborstraße) µg/m³. The EU limit (25 µg/m³) was met at every station; 2024 was among the cleanest years in two decades.
- Notas
- About 2× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) but well under the EU limit. Winter heating and traffic are the main sources.
Washington, D.C.mejor
6,4 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notas
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
03Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Vienna
$1973/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 30 jun 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Konsumerhebung 2024/25 average all-household consumption €4,170/mo ÷ household size 2.17 = €1,922 per-capita; minus per-capita housing rentals (COICOP 041 actual €235 + 042 imputed €379 = €614/hh → €283/capita) = €1,639/mo excl rent; ×1.0562 CPI uplift to mid-2026 ×1.1399 USD = $1,973. Per-capita basis to match the other countries; a single-person household alone spends more (~$2,657).
Washington, D.C.mejor
$1741/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notas
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
04Climate comfort
Viennamejor
6/12 mo
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precipitation < 150mm: Apr (17.2), May (20.7), Jun (25.1), Jul (26.4), Aug (26.1), Sep (21.1) = 6 (Oct just misses at 14.3°C).
Washington, D.C.
4/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Washington Reagan National 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: April, May, September, October = 4. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.5–32°C), November to March for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
- Notas
- The lowest count in this dataset's US coverage, and the metric flatters the city slightly at both ends: it does not account for humidity, which makes a 32°C July afternoon in Washington harder work than a dry 32°C elsewhere.
03
La comparación completa
Abre cualquier dato para ver qué mide, cómo de reciente es y el rastro completo de fuentes de ambas ciudades.
01
Impuestos
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Freelancer tax burden% effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profileVienna29,4Washington, D.C.mejor18,1
Qué mide esto
Effective total burden (income tax + mandatory social and health contributions) for a solo IT freelancer with €60,000/year revenue and 10% deductible expenses, using the most favourable eligible scheme in the country's tax-schemes data. Computed by the SettleMetric tax engine; recorded as a curated value with the winning scheme id in method.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· % effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profile· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Vienna
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (BMF Einkommensteuer, SVS/GSVG)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme at €60,000 revenue, 0 expenses = Basispauschalierung: 15% expense lump-sum (9,000) → profit 51,000; Grundfreibetrag capped 4,950; SVS 26.83% of 46,050 = 12,355; accident 156; income tax on 33,539 (less 13,539 allowance) = 5,155. Levies 17,666 → 29.44%. The standard actual-expenses route with no expenses runs ~37%, the GmbH all-dividends chain ~44%.
Washington, D.C.
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notas
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
02
Legalización
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Remote-work legalization easeViennamejorLong stay pathWashington, D.C.Short stay only
Qué mide esto
Best available legalization route for a location-independent earner with a median (non-EU, non-US) passport, classified from this country's legalization-paths data: dedicated digital-nomad visa; general freelance/self-employment permit; realistic long-stay path (e.g. renewable temporary residence); only short visa-free/tourist stays; effectively none.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 180 días
Vienna
migration.gv.at — Red-White-Red Card: Self-employed Key Workers
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Austria has no dedicated digital-nomad or remote-work visa. The nearest long-stay route for a non-EU location-independent earner is the Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte for self-employed key workers, but it targets investment/value-adding entrepreneurs (≥ €100,000 investment, job creation, know-how transfer, or regional significance) — a laptop-only freelancer usually meets none of the four criteria. EU/EEA/Swiss citizens simply register (Anmeldebescheinigung) and freelance freely; Ukrainians have immediate self-employment rights under temporary protection. Classified 'long-stay-path'.
Washington, D.C.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Visa Waiver Program; 8 CFR 214.2(b) visitor admissions
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- The United States has no digital-nomad visa and no freelance or self-employment permit — the concept does not exist in US immigration law, which authorises work through a sponsoring employer, a treaty investment, or an immigrant petition. For a location-independent earner with an ordinary passport, the realistic ceiling is a visitor stay: 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program, or up to six months on a B-1/B-2 visa, neither of which authorises work in the United States. The genuine long-stay routes all have a demanding filter — E-2 requires a treaty nationality plus substantial invested capital, O-1A and EB-1A require documented national or international acclaim, and the diversity lottery is a lottery. See data/countries/us/legalization.json for all six.
03
Coste de vida
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Cost of living (single, excl. rent)USD/month, single person, excluding rentVienna1973Washington, D.C.mejor1741
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· USD/month, single person, excluding rent· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Vienna
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 30 jun 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Konsumerhebung 2024/25 average all-household consumption €4,170/mo ÷ household size 2.17 = €1,922 per-capita; minus per-capita housing rentals (COICOP 041 actual €235 + 042 imputed €379 = €614/hh → €283/capita) = €1,639/mo excl rent; ×1.0562 CPI uplift to mid-2026 ×1.1399 USD = $1,973. Per-capita basis to match the other countries; a single-person household alone spends more (~$2,657).
Washington, D.C.
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notas
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
Gasto mensual por categoría (sin alquiler)
Vienna
Washington, D.C.
Statistik Austria — Konsumerhebung 2024/25 (all-households per-capita COICOP), CPI-uplifted
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 30 jun 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- All-household COICOP monthly averages ÷ household size 2.17 × 1.2040 (CPI uplift ×1.0562, FX ×1.1399) = per-capita USD/mo. Housing (04) split into non-rent sub-lines; rent (041+042) excluded. Items sum ≈ $1,971 ≈ the $1,973 headline. Health is out-of-pocket only (mandatory public ÖGK covers the rest).
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Each 2024 all-consumer-unit annual category mean divided by 2.4 persons and 12 months, on the same basis as the headline figure. Transport $13,318; food at home $6,224; healthcare $6,197; entertainment $3,609 + education $1,569 + reading $125; housing less shelter and utilities $5,213; utilities $4,736; food away from home $3,945; personal care $978 + apparel $2,001; miscellaneous $1,218; alcohol $643 + tobacco $352. Shelter, pensions and cash contributions are excluded. Items sum to $1,739, two dollars below the headline through rounding.
- Notas
- Transport is the largest line and the one that most surprises people arriving from Europe: it is dominated by vehicle purchase, insurance and fuel, because outside a handful of cities a car is not optional. Health at $215 a month per person is roughly three times the European entries in this dataset, and that is out-of-pocket spending on top of insurance premiums, not instead of them.
01Transport
Viennamás barato
$315
Washington, D.C.
$462
02Food & non-alcoholic beverages
Vienna
$268
Washington, D.C.
—
03Recreation, sport & culture
Vienna
$264
Washington, D.C.
—
04Food & non-alcoholic drinks
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$216
05Health (out-of-pocket + insurance)
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$215
06Recreation, culture & education
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$184
07Household goods, services & furnishings
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$181
08Utilities (electricity, gas, water, fuels)
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$164
09Restaurants & hotels
Vienna
$153
Washington, D.C.
—
10Furnishings & household equipment
Vienna
$142
Washington, D.C.
—
11Restaurants & eating out
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$137
12Health (out-of-pocket)
Vienna
$110
Washington, D.C.
—
13Insurance & financial services
Vienna
$109
Washington, D.C.
—
14Other goods & services (incl. personal care)
Vienna
$105
Washington, D.C.
—
15Personal care & clothing
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$103
16Housing energy (electricity, gas, fuels)
Vienna
$97
Washington, D.C.
—
17Clothing & footwear
Vienna
$96
Washington, D.C.
—
18Housing maintenance & repair
Vienna
$95
Washington, D.C.
—
19Housing operating costs (water, waste, common charges)
Vienna
$78
Washington, D.C.
—
20Information & communication
Vienna
$64
Washington, D.C.
—
21Alcoholic beverages & tobacco
Vienna
$51
Washington, D.C.
—
22Miscellaneous
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$42
23Alcohol & tobacco
Vienna
—
Washington, D.C.
$35
24Education
Vienna
$24
Washington, D.C.
—
Total (sin alquiler)
Vienna$1971/mes
Washington, D.C.$1739/mes
04
Vivienda
Alquiler por tipo de vivienda
Alquiler de oferta: precio en el centro, con el de fuera del centro entre paréntesis ($/mes).
Vienna
Washington, D.C.
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 30 abr 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Gross asking rents (Bruttomiete incl. Betriebskosten): central = mean of districts 1–9 (22.49 EUR/m²), outside = mean of districts 10–23 (20.19 EUR/m²). Size premium from Statistik Austria Q1-2025 rent-by-size classes normalized to the 2BR class: studio ×1.398, 1BR ×1.118, 2BR ×1.000, 3BR ×0.98. EUR/m² × unit size (studio 35, 1BR 50, 2BR 70, 3BR 95 m²) × 1.1399 USD/EUR.
- Notas
- ASKING-rent basis (new free-market lease), the right basis for a mover. Vienna's average PAID rents are far lower due to the very large regulated municipal/cooperative sector. Per-cell figures carry ~±10–15% modeling uncertainty; the central/outer split and size gradient are transparent derivations, not a single official table.
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 21 may 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- For each apartment size, the 46 District of Columbia ZIP codes were sorted by that size's FY2026 Small Area FMR; 'center' is the mean of the priciest quartile (12 ZIPs) and 'outside' the mean of the cheapest quartile. HUD publishes a separate rent for each bedroom count, so no floor-area assumption is required.
- Notas
- Studio and one-bedroom rents in the expensive quarter are almost identical ($2,608 against $2,691) — in central Washington the extra room costs about $80 a month, which is the smallest such step in this dataset and reflects how tight the small-unit market is around the federal core.
01Estudio
Viennamás barato
$1254$1126 fuera del centro
Washington, D.C.
$2608$1680 fuera del centro
021 dormitorio
Viennamás barato
$1433$1287 fuera del centro
Washington, D.C.
$2691$1730 fuera del centro
032 dormitorios
Viennamás barato
$1795$1611 fuera del centro
Washington, D.C.
$3000$1930 fuera del centro
043 dormitorios
Viennamás barato
$2387$2143 fuera del centro
Washington, D.C.
$3784$2436 fuera del centro
05
Seguridad
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Homicide rateintentional homicides per 100,000/yearViennamejor0,9Washington, D.C.5,1
Qué mide esto
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).
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· intentional homicides per 100,000/year· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Vienna
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (0.61 in 2020 rising to 0.85 in 2024). UNODC/World Bank report ~0.88 for 2023. Very safe by international standards.
Washington, D.C.
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
06
Clima
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Climate comfortpleasant months/yearViennamejor6Washington, D.C.4
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más alto, mejor· pleasant months/year· se vuelve a verificar cada 3650 días
Vienna
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precipitation < 150mm: Apr (17.2), May (20.7), Jun (25.1), Jul (26.4), Aug (26.1), Sep (21.1) = 6 (Oct just misses at 14.3°C).
Washington, D.C.
SettleMetric — computed from the Washington Reagan National 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: April, May, September, October = 4. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.5–32°C), November to March for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
- Notas
- The lowest count in this dataset's US coverage, and the metric flatters the city slightly at both ends: it does not account for humidity, which makes a 32°C July afternoon in Washington harder work than a dry 32°C elsewhere.
02+−Air quality (PM2.5)µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5Vienna10Washington, D.C.mejor6,4
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Vienna
Stadt Wien — Luftgütebericht 2024, Feinstaub PM2.5 (MA22 / Umweltbundesamt network)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Average of the Vienna network's 2024 annual means; valid stations ranged 9 (Lobau) to 11 (Taborstraße) µg/m³. The EU limit (25 µg/m³) was met at every station; 2024 was among the cleanest years in two decades.
- Notas
- About 2× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) but well under the EU limit. Winter heating and traffic are the main sources.
Washington, D.C.
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notas
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
07
Sanidad
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Private healthcare costUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldViennamejor1368Washington, D.C.8892
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Vienna
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Supplementary Sonderklasse cover (hospital special class + free choice of doctor) on top of the mandatory public ÖGK, healthy 35-year-old: market midpoint ≈ €100/mo = €1,200/yr → ≈ $1,368 at 1.1399 USD/EUR. Range ≈ $889 (basic, with deductible) to ≈ $2,599 (premium).
- Notas
- Austria has mandatory public health insurance (ÖGK, ~7.65% of income, shared) covering everyone in the system; unlike countries with full private replacement plans, the private market here is supplementary (Zusatzversicherung), so this is the top-up Sonderklasse premium, not a full-replacement policy. Adding an outpatient Privatarzt module (€40–145/mo) raises a full package to ≈ €150–250/mo.
Washington, D.C.
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 15 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notas
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
08
Dinero y cripto
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Crypto regulationViennaLegal regulatedWashington, D.C.Legal regulated
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 180 días
Vienna
BMF — Tax treatment of crypto-assets (Ökosoziale Steuerreform, from 1 March 2022)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2022
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Holding and trading are legal. Since the eco-social tax reform (effective 1 March 2022), crypto income — current income (staking, lending) and realized capital gains — is taxed as income from capital assets at the special flat rate of 27.5% (§27a EStG), whether withheld as KESt or assessed via return. Crypto acquired before 1 Feb 2021 is grandfathered 'Altbestand'. EU MiCA and DAC8 reporting apply. A clear statutory tax plus the EU regulatory framework make this 'legal-regulated'.
Washington, D.C.
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.
02+−Financial control levelViennamejorLowWashington, D.C.Moderate
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Vienna
EU Anti-Money-Laundering Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 + Austrian FM-GwG
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Composite: EUR is fully convertible with no capital/exchange controls (EU/eurozone, free movement of capital under Art. 63 TFEU). Austria has no general national cash-payment cap; a harmonised EU-wide €10,000 cash limit takes effect 10 July 2027 (AMLR 2024/1624, not yet in force). Identity checks apply from €10,000 (CDD from €3,000). Non-resident banking available with standard KYC. Low state control over personal money flows.
Washington, D.C.
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.
- Notas
- The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.
09
Infraestructura
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−Domestic delivery qualityViennaExcellentWashington, D.C.Excellent
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Vienna
Österreichische Post AG — self-service / pickup network (post.at)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Austrian Post runs a very dense last-mile network: ~640 self-service pickup stations, ~120,000 pickup boxes and ~77,500 post boxes, with next-business-day standard parcel delivery; via the myflexbox cooperation (~550 shared stations) about 80% of all Austrian parcels can be received in one locker infrastructure. DHL, DPD, GLS and Hermes also deliver nationwide. Dense, fast, reliable → excellent.
Washington, D.C.
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.
- Notas
- Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.
02+−International delivery easeViennamejorMinor frictionWashington, D.C.Significant friction
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Vienna
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Intra-EU shipping is frictionless (single market). For non-EU imports the EU removed the €150 duty-free threshold and from 1 July 2026 applies a temporary flat customs duty per item on ≤€150 consignments (transitional until 2028); VAT is collected at checkout via IOSS. Predictable but no longer duty-free — the same EU regime as other member states.
Washington, D.C.
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 20 feb 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- This changed fundamentally in 2025 and is the fact most likely to be out of date in anyone's head. The United States used to have the most generous de minimis threshold in the world — $800 duty- and tax-free per person per day — which made ordering from abroad trivially easy. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries from 29 August 2025, and Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension in February 2026. Every inbound shipment is now dutiable regardless of value, postal shipments carry duties set by the order, and carriers charge brokerage on top. The carriers themselves are excellent and clearance is quick, so this is friction of cost and paperwork rather than unreliability — but a €40 parcel from Europe now arrives with a bill attached.
03+−Internet speedMbps, median fixed downloadVienna31,5Washington, D.C.mejor84,9
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más alto, mejor· Mbps, median fixed download· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Vienna
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Austria
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Median of the 2023 daily country medians (2.78M download tests — 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; monthly medians ranged ~28.6–33.3 Mbps).
- Notas
- M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures (Austrian fixed broadband commonly markets 100–1000 Mbps) — comparable only within this criterion.
Washington, D.C.
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notas
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
10
Idioma
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−English proficiencyViennaVery highWashington, D.C.mejorNative
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Vienna
EF EPI 2025 — Austria (rank 3/123, score 616, Very High band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Austria ranked #3 globally and #1 in Europe, score 616 (Very High / C1 band). English is broadly workable in Vienna and the tech, service and academic sectors; German remains the sole official language and matters for administration and integration requirements.
Washington, D.C.
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
11
Educación
CriterioViennaWashington, D.C.
01+−International schoolsaccredited international schools, countVienna8Washington, D.C.sin datos verificados
Qué mide esto
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).
Cuanto más alto, mejor· accredited international schools, count· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Vienna
Accreditor registries (IB World Schools, AEFE) — per-school verification
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 12 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 12 jul 2026
- Método
- Vienna-metro schools each confirmed against a qualifying accreditor: (1) Vienna International School — IB; (2) American International School Vienna — IB DP + US/MSA; (3) Danube International School Vienna — IB; (4) AMADEUS International School Vienna — IB + CIS; (5) International Christian School of Vienna — IB DP; (6) Gymnasium Klosterneuburg International School — IB; (7) International Highschool Herzogberg (Perchtoldsdorf) — IB; (8) Lycée Français de Vienne — AEFE-homologated. Aggregator sites were used only to find candidates.
- Notas
- Verified FLOOR of 8 (7 IB World Schools + 1 AEFE French school). KIS (Klosterneuburg) and Herzogberg (Perchtoldsdorf) sit just outside the city line but within the metro; strictly in-city the count is 6. Additional schools may hold qualifying accreditation but were not each individually verified this cycle.
Washington, D.C.
Washington almost certainly has an unusually high provision for its size, because a diplomatic capital attracts national schools — but 'almost certainly' is not a number, and the count belongs here only once it can be sourced on the same basis as the other cities.