The best places to move abroad

“Best places to move abroad” lists usually rank on one thing — cheapest, or sunniest — and quietly ignore whether you could actually live there. This one scores the full picture: everyday safety, cost of living, how easily a foreigner reaches healthcare, whether you can land in English, the air you'd breathe, and whether there's a real long-stay visa route. One city per country, so it's a genuine spread of places to consider.

CityCost of living

Ranked from our city + feasibility data (banded, directional). Visa and tax rules change — verify current rules before you move. Updated 2026-06.

A strong all-rounder is a great place to start a shortlist and a poor place to end one. The “best” place to move is the one whose strengths line up with what you're actually optimizing for — and whose trade-offs miss the things you can't give up. That's the part the assessment is built for.

Common questions

What is the best country to move to from the US?

There's no single answer — it depends on what you're optimizing for and which visa route you'd use. For most Americans, the strongest all-round options pair everyday safety and accessible healthcare with a real long-stay route: Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay for a Western-style base, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama for proximity and easy residency, and Malaysia or Thailand in Asia. The ranking above scores cities on exactly these factors.

Where is the cheapest, safest place to move abroad?

The overlap of cheap and safe is smaller than most lists admit. Among the places we cover, several mid-size cities in Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, and parts of Latin America pair a low cost of living with a high safety rating — our 'safest affordable cities' guide ranks that specific overlap.

How do I choose between the best places to move abroad?

Start with what you're moving toward, not the ranking. Decide which two or three relocation drivers matter most — flexibility, career momentum, belonging, stability, exploration — then favour places strong on those whose downsides miss what you can't live without. The free assessment does this for you in about four minutes.

Which of these fits you?

A list is a place to start, not a way to choose. The assessment reads every city through your relocation profile — and surfaces the ones that fit the life you’re trying to build.

Take the assessment →