Salzburg

Is Salzburg safe?

Yes. Salzburg is a very safe city for a visitor. The Federal Criminal Police Office counted 4 murder victims in the whole state of Salzburg in 2025, home to about 570,000 people, and robbery reports fell by a fifth to 94. Pickpocketing, the crime visitors worry about most, fell by a third.

The bigger statistical risk is the road. The city of Salzburg recorded 4 road deaths in 2025 and 7 in 2024, more per head than Vienna. And the Salzach, which runs through the middle of the city, floods every few years. We score Salzburg 85, level with Vienna and below Munich (88).

Crime in numbers

Austria's crime report covers states, not cities, so most figures below are for the whole state of Salzburg. Eurostat's regional data cover Salzburg and its surrounding district, about 380,000 people.

Violent crime overall is flat: 5,826 cases in 2025, down 0.5%, and in more than half of them victim and suspect knew each other. Reports of rape rose 16% to 107. Police solved 58.2% of all offences, more than half for the eighth year running.

Pickpockets and the old town

With 314 pickpocket and distraction thefts in the state in 2025, about 55 per 100,000 people, theft is far less common than in Vienna, where the rate is about five times higher. The state figure includes rural districts, and the city has no separate count, so the rate in the old town is likely higher.

The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary says pickpocketing is more common in big city centres and parks after dark, and asks travellers to take care at main stations and on international trains. In Salzburg that means the crowded lanes of the old town, the main station and international trains. Scams aimed at tourists are rare.

Walking at night

Salzburg has never been part of the EU's survey of city residents, so we use Graz, the nearest Austrian city in the 2023 wave. There, 75% of residents felt safe walking alone at night in the city and 86% in their own neighbourhood. In Vienna the figures were 78% and 80%.

Robbery is rare, with 94 cases in the whole state in 2025, and more than half of them happened in public places, streets and car parks. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary also warns about drink spiking followed by robbery or assault in Austrian bars. Watch your drink, and take a taxi rather than walking through parks late at night.

Roads, river and air

Salzburg's roads are less safe than its streets. Statistik Austria counted 4 road deaths in the city in 2025 and 7 in 2024, about 2.5 and 4.4 per 100,000 residents, against 0.7 in Vienna in 2025. Another 172 people were seriously injured in the city in 2025, and 130 of the people injured or killed were pedestrians.

The Salzach is the city's main natural hazard. In August 2002 it reached 8.30 m in the city, 10 cm short of flooding large parts of the old town, and on 2 June 2013 it hit a record 8.51 m. In July 2021 it rose to 6.5 m in the old town and the fire brigade set up about 50 mobile barriers along the banks. Since 2002 more than 750 million euros have been spent on flood protection across the state, and the city says its mobile walls, up to 2 m high, will hold a 100-year flood.

The air is clean for most of the year. State monitors measured annual PM2.5PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary of 9 to 10 µg/m³ in the city in 2025, about 70% lower than in 2005 at the Rudolfsplatz traffic station, with the worst days during winter inversions. Austrian healthcare is excellent and tap water is safe.

How we scored it

Violent crime (93) is Salzburg's strongest factor, with about 0.6 killings per 100,000 people in the state. Natural hazards (88) reflects the Salzach floods, and walking at night (81) uses the 2023 survey result for Graz. Traffic (82) is the weakest factor, because the city's road death rate is several times Vienna's. Our confidence is medium, because Austria publishes crime figures by state, not by city. See our Austria page for the rest of the country.