Germany is More Frugal, Better Educated, and Older than Austria

Germany is more frugal, better educated and older on average than Austria. In contrast, Austria has a higher average purchasing power, profits more from purchasing power flows out of Germany than the other way around, and spends considerably more money on fashion than Germany does.

Although Germans' purchasing power is around 500 euros smaller per year than that of Austrians, the German savings rate (11.5%) is somewhat higher than the Austrian one (10%). This shows that Austrians tend to enjoy shopping a bit more than Germans do. The difference becomes more striking in the case of consumer expenditure for apparel. Whereas Austrians expend about 7.3% of their yearly household expenditures on clothes and footwear, Germans spend only about 4.5% of their expenses on fashion. Are Germans less fashion-conscious, or is this a reflection of the wide-spread presence of clothes discounters in Germany?

But Austria doesn't just have higher purchasing power – it also benefits more from purchasing power inflows from Germany (255 million per year) than Germans do from purchasing power outflows from Austria (152 million). However, with approximately 400 billion euros gross, Germany remains the largest retail market in Europe.

Germany is also older and better educated than Austria. Whereas the proportion of older citizens lies at 20.7% in Germany, this figure is only around 17.5% in Austria. In contrast, the proportion of children is higher in Austria (15%) than it is in Germany (13.5%). This also explains why Germany's population has a higher average age (44.9 years) than Austria's (43 years). Germany is also better educated, because direct comparisons reveal that there are more people with a tertiary degree in Germany (25.4%) than there are in Austria (18%).