United States
Austin makes sense if
- You want the easier housing and budget equation in this comparison.
- A calmer day-to-day safety profile matters most to you.
- You want the broader career options in this comparison.
Austin vs Nashville
Austin has a stronger professional market and a bright climate, but summer heat and weather risks shape life beyond work. Nashville is growing around live music and a friendly, easygoing pace, with healthcare as a relative strength. Both are warm, car-oriented and sprawling; the difference is Austin's career momentum versus Nashville's more social, music-centred identity.
The grey shape is all 283 cities; each row says whether lower or higher is better. Ratings out of 10 are our reviewed estimates; the rest is published data. How we measure
The choice in one minute
Nashville makes sense if
- Access to stronger healthcare matters most to you.
What matters to you
Set how much each area counts. The ranking updates as you go. Climate and values are left out because there is no better or worse there, only your taste.
Money
Nature & outdoors
City life
Safety & health
Work & family
Moving & settling in
- 1Austin60
Leads on nature & outdoors, work & family and moving & settling in; stands out for startup & tech scene and less violent crime.
- 2Nashville57
Narrowly best on safety & health: 57 vs Austin's 56; stands out for healthcare quality and fewer muggy days.
Scores out of 100, averaged from the areas you weighted. For a ranking built around your own situation, take the quiz.
Side by side
Money
Rent on a new lease, everyday prices and tax.
Section score out of 100
Austin66Nashville65
One-bedroom rent
Per month, new lease, citywide
$135/mo$2,444/mo
- $1,485/mo
- $1,485/mo
Rent as share of local pay
One-bedroom rent vs. typical net local pay
21%120%
- ~27%, leads
- ~32%
Everyday prices
Excluding rent · United States = 100
25131
- 100
- 100
Income tax + social contributions
Range: average-wage rate to top marginal rate; the dot marks its midpoint
0%46%
- 24–44%
- 24–44%
Climate
The year month by month. Whether it suits you is yours to judge.
Solid line: average daytime high. Dashed: night-time low. Point at the chart for any month; point at a city name to shade its range.
Bright days
Under 80% cloud and under 1 mm rain
30 days347 days
- 231 days, leads
- 202 days
Muggy days
Days that feel sticky (dew point)
0 days365 days
- 189 days
- 125 days, leads
Air pollution
Annual mean fine particles (PM2.5)
4.6 µg/m³84 µg/m³
- 10 µg/m³
- 8.7 µg/m³
Nature & outdoors
How easily you get to water, mountains and green space.
Section score out of 100
Austin49Nashville44
Beach & sea
110
- 2/10
- 2/10
Mountains
110
- 3/10
- 4/10, leads
City parks
110
- 7/10, leads
- 6/10
Weekend escapes
110
- 6/10
- 6/10
City life
Getting around on foot, food, culture and the feel of the streets.
Section score out of 100
Austin69Nashville67
Walkability
110
- 4/10, leads
- 3/10
Public transport
110
- 3/10, leads
- 2/10
Restaurants
110
- 8/10
- 8/10
Public spaces
110
- 7/10, leads
- 6/10
Safety & health
Crime, how safe people feel, and the care you would get.
Section score out of 100
Nashville57Austin56
Homicide rate
Per 100,000 residents per year
0.247
- 5.2
- 7.9
Feels safe day to day
110
- 6/10
- 6/10
Healthcare quality
110
- 8/10
- 10/10, leads
English-speaking care
110
- 10/10
- 10/10
Work & family
Jobs, working culture, schools and raising kids.
Section score out of 100
Austin63Nashville56
Job market
110
- 9/10, leads
- 7/10
Jobs in English
110
- 10/10
- 10/10
Work–life balance
110
- 3/10
- 4/10, leads
Schools
110
- 6/10
- 6/10
Moving & settling in
Visas, language, paperwork and staying connected.
Section score out of 100
Austin58Nashville52
Visa & residence difficulty
Typical case; your passport changes this
110
- 9/10
- 9/10
Language barrier
For an English speaker
110
- 1/10
- 1/10
Openness to newcomers
110
- 7/10
- 7/10
Flight connections
110
- 7/10
- 7/10
Society & values
Where each city sits. There is no right end of these scales.
Social attitudes
ConservativeLiberal
- 7/10
- 6/10
LGBTQ+ acceptance
LowHigh
- 8/10
- 8/10
Diversity
HomogeneousDiverse
- 8/10
- 6/10
Religion in public life
ReligiousSecular
- 7/10
- 4/10
Life in each city
Daily life
Austin
Sprawling and built around the car, with low density and walkability that frustrate anyone hoping to live without driving. The trade-off is space: homes and yards are generous, and the residential neighbourhoods and outer suburbs are pleasant and well regarded.
Nashville
Outside a few walkable pockets, getting around without a vehicle is hard, and the layout favours driving over strolling. Houses come with space, the suburbs are well kept, and neighbourhoods have character, but dense, mixed-use street life is thin compared with older American cities.
Safety
Austin
Broadly safe by the standards of a mid-size American city, with serious violent crime relatively contained. Petty crime, the car break-ins and opportunistic theft common to fast-growing US cities, is the more realistic everyday concern.
Nashville
Nashville records more violent crime than Denver and far more than Austin, and night-time wariness in certain areas tempers how secure the city feels. The police area covers the whole county, suburbs included, so the core alone is likely rougher.
Work and healthcare
Austin
Austin has a strong local market, with deep professional networks, a strong technology ecosystem, and plenty of English-language roles. The clinical care is solid, with reliable emergency services, good hospitals and, being the US, no language hurdle at the front desk.
Nashville
For English speakers, Nashville has a broad, healthy job market with low unemployment. Nashville is a major American healthcare hub, so hospital quality, emergency care, and English-speaking providers are genuine strengths.
Culture and public life
Austin
The live music scene is among the best in America, the food runs from world-class barbecue to serious Tex-Mex and an inventive restaurant culture, and nightlife and cafes are everywhere. Austin is affluent and fairly clean, though the sprawl grows faster than the upkeep.
Nashville
Culture is Nashville's headline. Nashville keeps its affluent core tidy enough, but this is a car-dependent metro where shared built space mostly means the honky-tonk strip of Lower Broadway and not much that's designed for lingering.
Summary
Austin is the better match for someone prioritising career depth and culture, provided the summer climate works for them. Nashville offers a more relaxed pace and stronger healthcare results, with music part of the city's everyday identity. Since both require driving, compare the jobs and neighbourhood routines you can actually secure.
Read on
Which of these fits you?
These numbers treat everyone the same. The quiz weighs them by your budget, climate taste, family and work, and ranks all 283 cities for you.