The Salzburg municipality of Elixhausen has the highest credit rating in Austria. This is the result of the annual credit rating ranking “The TOP 250 Municipalities” published on Wednesday by the Center for Administrative Research (KDZ) together with the municipal magazine “Public”. Second place also goes to Salzburg, to the municipality of Dienten am Hochkönig. In third place is the municipality of Niederndorf in Tyrol.
Elixhause also leads the ranking for Salzburg. Niederndorf takes first place in Tyrol. In Lower Austria, the municipality of Ardagger is the winner. The ranking for Styria is led by Raaba-Grambach, as in 2023. The municipality of Sattledt can also defend its first place in Upper Austria. The municipality of Weiden am See is in first place in Burgenland, Bizau in Vorarlberg and Sachsenburg in Carinthia is at the top.
The top 250 communities at a glance:
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Sufficient financial flexibility
The analysis examines whether a municipality has sufficient financial leeway to cover its operating expenses and make investments. In addition to ongoing operations, investments, investment grants and debt are also included in the analysis. The 2024 credit rating is based on the municipalities’ financial statements for the years 2020 to 2022 (data from Statistics Austria).
Looking at the ranking (www.kdz.eu) one might get the impression that small and medium-sized municipalities in particular are ranked well. According to the KDZ analysis, this is because there are more small municipalities in Austria than large ones. In addition, although large municipalities are generally financially strong, they bear high transfer burdens to the federal states and also have high expenditure on central local tasks, which are inadequately compensated for in the financial equalization. Overall, however, the distribution of municipalities is relatively balanced, it was said.
