More than one in three Austrians now lives with a connected home. According to Statistics Austria’s 2026 survey on information and communication technology (ICT) in households, 36% of people aged 16 to 74 use smart home solutions that control heating, lighting, household appliances, or security systems over the internet. That is up 12 percentage points from 24% in 2024, when the same questions were last asked — one of the clearest signs yet that the smart home has moved from early-adopter hobby to mainstream habit, at least in one European market.
The survey, published on October 27, 2026, is based on responses from around 4,300 households and 5,500 individuals collected between April and July 2026. It covers private use by people aged 16 to 74, and its figures refer to use during the three months before the survey. Because it uses a Europe-wide harmonised questionnaire, it also offers a useful benchmark for how quickly connected-home technology is spreading beyond the usual US- and UK-focused market reports.
Energy management leads the way
The most popular smart home category is energy management. A quarter of respondents (25%, up from 17% in 2024) use energy management systems such as smart thermostats, electricity meters, and internet-connected heating and lighting systems. That lead makes sense: a thermostat or heating controller is often the first connected device a household buys, and it is also the one most likely to pay for itself through lower energy bills.
Internet-connected household and garden appliances come next. Their use rose from 12% in 2024 to 21% in 2026. The category covers ovens, washing machines, robotic vacuum cleaners, and robotic lawnmowers — a mix of convenience purchases and genuinely labour-saving machines. Robot vacuums in particular have become a gateway device: once a household trusts one robot to roam the living room, adding a connected washer or mower feels like a smaller step.
Smart security systems grew fastest in relative terms, rising from 9% to 16%. The category includes alarm systems, smoke detectors, surveillance cameras, motion detectors, and smart locks. Security is often sold as a bundle — a doorbell camera here, a lock there — and the survey suggests those bundles are finding buyers well beyond the tech-enthusiast crowd.
Entertainment is still king, and voice assistants keep growing
For all the growth in home control, entertainment remains the most widespread connected category by a wide margin. Almost three quarters of respondents (74%, up from 66% in 2024) use at least one internet-connected entertainment device. Smart TVs lead at 68%, up from 60%, while smart audio systems and speakers reached 32%, up from 26%, and game consoles reached 24%.
Virtual voice assistants are now part of everyday life for 26% of the population, up from 22% in 2024. Younger people are the main users: among 16- to 24-year-olds, young women use voice assistants somewhat more frequently than young men (41% compared with 35%). Wearables such as smart watches, fitness trackers, and connected headphones are also widespread, used by 34% of the population, up from 29% in 2024.
Statistics Austria’s Director General for Statistics, Manuela Lenk, summed up the shift plainly: smart home solutions “are finding their way into more and more households,” with adoption increasing “particularly strongly among younger people.”
Young and highly educated users are ahead
The age breakdown shows where growth is coming from. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, smart home use almost doubled, from 17% to 33%. Among 25- to 34-year-olds it rose from 28% to 44%, the highest of any age group, just ahead of 35- to 44-year-olds at 43%. Adoption falls with age — 41% among 45- to 54-year-olds, 31% among 55- to 64-year-olds, and 24% among 65- to 74-year-olds — but even the oldest group in the survey is now at one in four.
Education matters too. Almost one in two people with tertiary education (48%) uses smart home solutions, compared with 22% of those with compulsory education only. Men use smart home solutions more than women overall (39% versus 34%), though the survey does not break down the reasons behind that gap.
What the numbers mean for smart home buyers
For anyone shopping for connected-home gear, the Austrian data carries a few practical lessons. First, start with energy: thermostats and heating controls are the category most households adopt first, and they are also the easiest to justify on running costs. Second, security is no longer a niche add-on — cameras, detectors, and locks are now used by roughly one in six people, so compatibility and privacy features deserve as much attention as price. Third, the entertainment figures are a reminder that the television and the speaker are still the home’s most-used screens and microphones, which is why voice assistants and TV platforms keep fighting to become the control point for everything else.
It is also worth noting what the survey does not show. It measures how many people use each category, not which brands or platforms they chose, and it does not ask why non-users have stayed away — whether because of cost, complexity, privacy concerns, or simply lack of interest. Those are the questions manufacturers and policymakers still need to answer if the next 12 percentage points are to come as quickly as the last.
The bigger picture
Austria is a single market, and its numbers will not map neatly onto North America or Asia. But as an official, methodologically consistent snapshot, it is more reliable than most vendor sales claims. A jump from 24% to 36% in two years, led by energy management and followed by appliances and security, suggests the smart home’s centre of gravity is shifting from novelty gadgets to household infrastructure: heating, cleaning, and keeping the home safe.
If that pattern holds elsewhere, the next wave of growth will come less from spectacular new product categories and more from ordinary devices — thermostats, washers, locks, and lights — quietly gaining a connection. For buyers, that is good news: it means more choice, more competition, and more reason to pick devices on open standards and long-term support rather than on launch-day hype.