Heating and cooling of residential buildings is accountable for a significant share of the EU’s final energy consumption. In order to determine the current condition of the building stock and to implement appropriate measures and requirements to improve energy efficiency of buildings, a detailed analysis of existing buildings is essential. This paper aims at describing characteristics of the building stock of Salzburg by analysing energy performance certificates. Therefore, the building stock is grouped into archetypes based on the construction period, building condition (not-retrofitted and retrofitted) and building type (single-family house and multi-family house) and then analysed regarding energy need for space heating, energy carrier, heat emission system, share and U-values of building elements and window to wall ratio. The analysis of the data demonstrates that the structure and naming conventions within the EPC-database pose hurdles for a correct investigation of the data. A comprehensible and distinct notation as well as versioning is inevitable for the sake of avoiding a loss of information and enabling international comparability. An analysis of energy carriers of the archetypes reveals, that a significant share of buildings still uses fossil fuels like oil and gas for energy supply, although electricity (heat pumps) and district heating are on the rise for buildings constructed in recent periods as well as for retrofitted buildings, with heat pumps being the most important energy carrier for new single-family houses amounting to a share of 65% and district heating for new multi-family houses amounting to a share of 46%. A detailed observation of the thermal performance of buildings and building elements reveals high potential and practicability not only for energy efficient new buildings, but also retrofitted buildings throughout all construction periods and for both, single-family houses and multi-family houses (e.g. median U-values for retrofitted ceilings/roofs range from 0.17 to 0.26 W/(m2K) compared to a median of 0.14 W/(m2K) for not-retrofitted ceilings/roofs from the most recent construction period). The conducted analysis provides detailed statistical information on the Salzburg building stock and hence a robust basis for further studies regarding the thermal performance of the building stock and future scenarios by means of urban building energy modelling approaches. Furthermore, based on this information, policies for energy efficient buildings can be improved and adapted according to current circumstances.