All things you need to know about living in Bressanone/Brixen
Bressanone/Brixen, in the province of Bolzano/Bozen, is home to 342 Germans: 1.48% of its 23,108 residents.
That is the 19th-highest concentration of Germans among the 5,872 Italian comuni with at least 1,000 residents.
Within Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol it ranks 9th.
ISTAT counts 2,889 residents with a foreign citizenship in Bressanone/Brixen, 12.50% of the population. The largest groups among the nationalities we follow most closely are Germans (342), Austrians (131), Russians (19).
That is above the national average for an Italian comune, which is 7.30%.
On ISTAT's well-being measures, the province of Bolzano/Bozen scores in the top quarter of Italian provinces for employment rate (20-64 years old) and average disposable income per capita.
It scores in the bottom quarter for overall Fixed Very High Capacity Network (VHCN) coverage and hospital beds in high-care wards.
These figures describe the province, not the town. A comune can sit some way from its province's average.
Summers average a high of 20.6°C (69°F) and winters a low of -8.8°C (16°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Bressanone/Brixen sees about 0 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 1,071mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 161 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Bressanone/Brixen at about €2,647 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
Bressanone/Brixen population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Albania | 392 | 1.70% |
| Germany | 342 | 1.48% |
| Ukraine | 188 | 0.81% |
| Romania | 159 | 0.69% |
| Austria | 131 | 0.57% |
| Slovakia | 121 | 0.52% |
| Poland | 52 | 0.23% |
| Hungary | 44 | 0.19% |
| Bulgaria | 37 | 0.16% |
| Russia | 19 | 0.08% |
| Croatia | 16 | 0.07% |
| Spain | 15 | 0.06% |
| Brazil | 14 | 0.06% |
| Czechia | 13 | 0.06% |
| France | 10 | 0.04% |
| Netherlands | 10 | 0.04% |
| Switzerland | 8 | 0.03% |
| United Kingdom | 8 | 0.03% |
| Argentina | 7 | 0.03% |
| Mexico | 7 | 0.03% |
| Lithuania | 6 | 0.03% |
| United States | 6 | 0.03% |
| Venezuela | 5 | 0.02% |
| Belgium | 3 | 0.01% |
| Portugal | 3 | 0.01% |
| Estonia | 2 | 0.01% |
| Latvia | 2 | 0.01% |
| Sweden | 2 | 0.01% |
| Australia | 1 | 0.00% |
| Finland | 1 | 0.00% |
| Greece | 1 | 0.00% |
| Japan | 1 | 0.00% |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 0.00% |
| Malta | 1 | 0.00% |
| Canada | 0 | 0.00% |
| Cyprus | 0 | 0.00% |
| Denmark | 0 | 0.00% |
| Ireland | 0 | 0.00% |
| South Korea | 0 | 0.00% |
| Norway | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovenia | 0 | 0.00% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 19,089 | 82.61% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 1,476 | 6.39% |
| Born outside the EU | 2,543 | 11.00% |
Germans over time
Quality of life in Bolzano/Bozen
Full BES profile for Bolzano/Bozen →Bolzano/Bozen on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Property prices
Buying in Bressanone/Brixen is below the Bolzano/Bozen average of €2,894/m². Averaged across 8 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
26.2 years of rent here equal the purchase price — above the national median of 22.2 years.
A ratio between two OMI prices, not a return on investment. It leaves out purchase taxes, IMU, maintenance, financing and the months a place sits empty — all of which push the real figure up. Useful for the question it does answer: whether this town looks expensive to buy relative to what renting in it costs.
Housing here in excellent condition costs 22% more than ordinary condition — €3,229/m² against €2,647.
That gap is what the market charges for a place you don’t have to work on. It is not what the work would cost you — OMI prices property, not builders.
A detached house here averages €2,804/m², against €2,647 for an apartment.
Compared street for street — houses and flats priced in the same neighborhood — a house costs 9% more per square meter.
OMI prices “Ville e Villini” separately from the apartments every other figure on this page describes. Nationally a house costs about 14% more per square meter, but in 450 comuni it costs less — worth checking rather than assuming.
Seismic zone
Bressanone/Brixen is in seismic zone 4. Of the four zones, zone 1 is the highest hazard and zone 4 the lowest. The Department of Civil Protection describes zone 4 as the lowest-hazard zone, where a strong earthquake is very unlikely.
This is the legal classification the Region gave the comune, used for planning and for control of building works. It is not a forecast, and it says nothing about the building you are looking at: since the 2018 building code the design load of a new building comes from site-specific hazard, not from the zone. Have any specific property checked by a qualified engineer.
Not to be confused with the “seismic” routes of the 7% pensioner regime. Those turn on whether the comune was in the 2009 L’Aquila or 2016–17 central-Italy earthquake areas, not on its zone, and being in zone 1 does not make anyone eligible for that regime, or for any tax treatment.
See every comune on the map →Hospital, airport and daily-needs distance
Nearest hospital: Ospedale Aziendale di Bressanone, about 3.4 km / 4 minutes by road from Brixen - Bressanone (the main town).
Nearest emergency department: Ospedale Aziendale di Bressanone, Bressanone/Brixen (Pronto Soccorso), about 3.4 km / 4 minutes by road from Brixen - Bressanone (the main town).
Nearest DEA (level I or II): Ospedale Centrale di Bolzano, Bolzano/Bozen (DEA level II), about 53.3 km / 42 minutes by road from Brixen - Bressanone (the main town).
Nearest airport: Bolzano Airport (BZO), about 50.2 km / 39 minutes by road from Brixen - Bressanone (the main town).
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): Eurospar, about 0.9 km / 2 minutes by road from Brixen - Bressanone (the main town).
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia Corte Principe Vescovile, about 2.1 km / 4 minutes by road from Brixen - Bressanone (the main town).
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Brixen - Bressanone, about 2.7 km / 5 minutes by road from Brixen - Bressanone (the main town).
Measured by road from the main town of the comune (its OpenStreetMap place point; the geographic center for the few comuni with none), at free-flow speeds with no traffic. It is approximate. For Bressanone/Brixen, a trip from your own address can take longer or shorter. Drive the route before you rely on it, and ask the local health authority which hospital serves the town. Shops, pharmacies and stations are the nearest to the main town, not to your address.
Nearby comuni
← See Bressanone/Brixen on the interactive map
This page, as data
Every figure above sits behind the page as a value with its source, its date and its coverage attached. Your assistant reads the same record, gaps included.