Kraków vs Vienna for couples
Kraków, in Poland, and Vienna, in Austria, are about 331 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules. Kraków leads on cost, tax and internet speed; Vienna on safety, healthcare and getting by in English.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Kraków is cheaper: we estimate about €2,672 a month for a couple living centrally, against €3,826 in Vienna. That is €1,154 a month, or 30%, less.
Taxes
Kraków has the lighter tax load: Poland is in our low to medium tax tier, Austria in our high tax tier.
Climate
Vienna is 2°C warmer on average over the year: 12°C against 10°C in Kraków. Vienna is drier, with about 600 mm of rain a year against 682 mm in Kraków (12% less).
Safety
Vienna is the safer pick: Austria scores 75 out of 100 on safety, 3 points above Poland (72).
Healthcare
Vienna has the stronger healthcare: Austria scores 79 out of 100 on healthcare, 17 points above Poland (62).
Internet
Kraków has faster home internet: about 140 Mbps median fixed download against about 80 Mbps in Vienna.
Language
Main languages: Polish in Kraków; German in Vienna. English goes further in Vienna (good English) than in Kraków (some English).
Residency and visas
Both are rated possible, with conditions for long-term residency for people from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. The cheapest self-funded income route we track starts at about $2,409 a month in Poland and $3,045 in Austria. Citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights in both. For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter Poland visa-free and 93 can enter Austria.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts cost (€2,672 against €3,826 a month), tax (low to medium tax against high tax) and internet speed (140 Mbps against 80 Mbps) first, Kraków comes out ahead. If the other cares more about safety (75 against 72 out of 100), healthcare (79 against 62 out of 100) and getting by in English (good English against some English), Vienna does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: a partner who wants warmth leans toward Vienna (12°C on average), while one who minds the heat leans toward Kraków (10°C).
Size differs too: Kraków is a mid-sized city (250,000 to 1 million people) and Vienna a large one (1 to 5 million people).
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Kraków, Vienna and 913 other cities for both of you at once.