Best Countries To Live In The World

There is no single best country to live in. The right destination depends on what you need: affordable healthcare, a strong job market, good schools, low crime, a climate you can live with, or a visa you actually qualify for.

What you can do is compare countries against the factors that matter most to you. This guide pulls together the data, ranking indexes, and expat feedback across cost of living, healthcare, safety, education, work, climate, and residency options.

We are expats ourselves and have lived, worked, and traveled across many of the countries below. Use this as a starting point to build your own shortlist.

The Best Countries to Live

Our top ten picks for expats: Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Mauritius, Panama, and Mexico. The rest of this guide explains how we got there and how to weigh the same factors against your own priorities.

Here is how those ten rank on two of the most widely cited measures of national prosperity and development. The Legatum figure is each country’s overall position out of 167; the Human Development Index runs from 0 to 1, where higher is better.

Country	Legatum Prosperity Index (2023)	Human Development Index
Denmark	1st	0.962
Germany	9th	0.959
Ireland	11th	0.949
Canada	13th	0.939
Singapore	17th	0.946
Spain	24th	0.918
Portugal	26th	0.890
Mauritius	47th	0.806
Panama	50th	0.839
Mexico	71st	0.789

Sources: Legatum Prosperity Index 2023 and the UN Human Development Report 2025 (using 2023 data, the most recent available).

How We Choose the Best Countries to Live In

There are plenty of valid reasons to pick a new home: schools for the kids, a stable government, a particular climate. The hard part is finding the information and weighing it up. We have pulled together the categories that matter most:

• Expat reviews
• Ranking indexes
• Personal freedom
• Cost of living
• Healthcare
• Travel options
• Education
• Work and business
• Job market and employment
• Safety and security
• Environment and climate
• Happiness
• Visa and residency options

Best Countries to Live In for Expats

Expat satisfaction surveys are a useful counterweight to the big quality-of-life indexes, because they capture how people who actually moved feel about their new home rather than how a country scores on paper. The largest of these is the InterNations Expat Insider survey, which asks expats to rate dozens of factors across work, finances, quality of life, settling in, and day-to-day essentials.

In the most recent survey, the top three destinations were Panama, Colombia, and Mexico, with Spain the only European country in the top 10. Latin American and Asian countries dominate the upper end of the ranking.

Your own priorities may differ from the average expat’s, but the size of the survey and the range of factors make it a solid place to start.

Country Indexes

Plenty of organizations rank countries by quality of life, each using its own mix of factors. The one we keep coming back to is the Legatum Prosperity Index, which ranks 167 countries across 12 categories including safety and security, economic stability, and the natural environment. Its website lets you reweight those categories to match what matters to you.

In the most recent Legatum index, the top five are Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Switzerland.

The people living in these countries have an exceptional standard of living. That does not automatically make them the right move for you. All five have high costs of living even by Western European standards, plus high tax rates that fund their social programs. To keep that standard of living, you would need substantial savings or a well-paid job once you arrive.

The United Nations Human Development Report

The United Nations Human Development Report measures human wellbeing worldwide. It overlaps with the Legatum index but weights things differently. Where Legatum leans on prosperity and governance, the Human Development Index is built on three things: how long people live, how much education they get, and income per head.

Inequality matters here. A country that scores well on income or health but distributes those gains unevenly tends to rank lower once inequality is factored in. That makes the index a useful counterweight to rankings that only look at averages.

In the latest report, the top of the index is dominated by smaller European countries: Iceland leads, with Switzerland and Norway close behind, followed by Denmark and Sweden. Among the countries expats tend to consider, Singapore sits inside the global top 15 and the United States in the top 20. Ireland has climbed sharply over the past few decades on the back of its economic transformation.

Cost of Living and Personal Finances

Cost of living is what you spend day to day: housing, food, utilities, transport, and so on. It is hard to pin down accurately because it depends so heavily on how you live. Some of the factors that move it:

• Whether you eat at home or in restaurants
• How much domestic help you want
• Your hobbies, sports, and entertainment
• Your transport needs
• How much you plan to travel
• Your education needs
• Whether you need specialized healthcare
• The taxes you will pay, and any tax incentives
• Your utility usage
• How many imported goods you buy

Given all that, it is no surprise the figures online vary wildly, and many sites use questionable methods. Treat any single number with care. Cost of living also varies hugely within a country. In Australia, a smart suburb of Sydney costs far more than Umina, a two-hour drive away.

Where you are also changes what is cheap. In Mauritius or Aruba, anything imported is expensive while local food is cheap. In Portugal, imported European goods are affordable because transport and duty costs are low. Seafood is generally cheaper in the Caribbean than in Europe.

The core point is simple: be honest about whether you can afford the life you want. Even paradise is hard work if you cannot cover the rent.

Healthcare

Healthcare access is one of the bigger considerations in any move. You want to know you can get the care you need without it derailing your finances or your quality of life. In many countries, private healthcare and global health insurance aimed at expats fill that gap, and both can be surprisingly affordable. Quality varies, so research it properly.

In Panama, for example, the standard of care in Panama City is excellent, while smaller towns offer less. The Lancet medical journal ranked national healthcare systems in a 2016 study, putting Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Australia in the top five. That study predates the pandemic, and it measures whole-country systems, so a country’s private healthcare can be considerably better than its overall ranking suggests.

Life expectancy is sometimes used as a rough proxy for healthcare quality, but it is an unreliable one. It is affected by diet, lifestyle, and the gap between public and private systems, all of which vary within a single country. Use it as one data point, not the answer.

Access to Travel Options

Isolation is a real risk when you move abroad, and good transport links are what reduce it. They let you travel and let people visit you. Live on the Costa Dorada in Spain and you are 30 minutes from Barcelona airport, a major hub with cheap flights worldwide, plus high-speed rail and good buses.

If peace and quiet is the point, somewhere like a small village in Aruba does the opposite: infrequent, expensive flights mean fewer visitors. Many people want a mix, a quieter spot that still has transport links within reach.

Education

If you are moving with children, the quality and cost of schooling will be a priority. Many countries, including Canada, offer free primary and secondary education. For higher education, look into the country’s public and private universities in your field.

A few practical tools: International School Advisor lets you compare international schools across cities and tuition languages, and the major global university rankings let you search by country or course. Many countries also offer student visas, which can be a route to residency and eventually citizenship.

If you or your family plan to keep studying, prioritize a country that offers affordable, high-quality education in the subject that matters to you.

Working Abroad

If you plan to work in your new home, the local economy matters as much as the lifestyle. Look at average salaries in your field, the unemployment rate, and whether the job market is actually hiring. Check how the country treats remote workers and digital nomads if that applies to you, and what the typical work-life balance looks like.

Research demand for your specific skills. Many countries run a Skilled Migration Visa program, and if your occupation is on the list it usually means two things: a faster migration pathway, and good odds of finding work once you arrive. If you are starting a business, look into Startup Visa programs, which often come with support beyond the visa itself.

The business environment is harder to compare than it used to be. The World Bank’s long-running Ease of Doing Business ranking was discontinued in 2021 after an investigation found its data had been manipulated. Its replacement, the World Bank’s Business Ready report, scores countries across regulation, public services, and operational efficiency rather than publishing a single league table, so treat any “best country for business” ranking you see online with caution and check what year and source it comes from.

Safety and Security

The Global Peace Index is the most established attempt to measure how safe a country is. It ranks 163 countries each year across crime, political stability, conflict, and militarization, drawing on verified statistical sources.

Look past the headline number, though. Panama ranks 81st of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index, mid-table globally, but for expats and tourists it is safer than that position suggests. Violent crime tends to be drug-related and geographically contained. The Darien Gap near the Colombian border and the port city of Colón are no-go areas, but outside those, Panama is considered a safe place to live.

Crime statistics are only part of the picture. Political stability, health outcomes, and environmental risks matter too: a low pickpocketing rate counts for little in an earthquake zone. First-hand accounts help here. Expat blogs and reviews of a destination will tell you more about daily life than any single index. As anywhere, flashing cash and expensive electronics invites trouble.

Japan, Ireland, and Singapore have all held strong safety reputations among expats over the years.

Environment and Climate

Climate shapes daily life more than almost any other factor, so it is worth being honest about what you actually want. The sunniest places on earth are often deserts, so most people are really after a balance. The southwestern US, Central America, and Australia tend to deliver that.

If you want winter and snow, look at Canada, Japan, Northern Europe, or South America. Japan is known for its powder snow, and the town of Niseko on the northern island of Hokkaido has drawn so many foreign visitors that many ended up settling there. “Simple vacations and explorations in the snow inspired hundreds of foreigners to want to live in northern Japan permanently.” Graham Hill, Hokkaido Agents.

If you want four distinct seasons, southern Europe offers it, which is part of the appeal of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. South Africa and New Zealand suit the same preference. And if you want both beaches and mountains within reach, Central America (Panama, Costa Rica) and parts of Asia (Thailand) let you switch between them.

Hot or cold, urban or rural, coast or mountains, old architecture or a modern city: these are personal calls, and they matter more to how you feel about a place than most rankings do.

Are the Best Countries to Live In the Happiest?

The UN’s World Happiness Report measures self-reported wellbeing across the world, using several years of survey data. As with the Human Development Index, the same themes recur: income equality, gender equality, and religious freedom all track closely with how happy people report being.

The usual caveat applies, results vary enormously within any country, but if you want to live somewhere surrounded by generally content people, it is a reasonable place to begin your research. The countries near the top of this list tend to be welcoming to expats and visitors.

Language

Learning a new language can be rewarding, and for some it is essential. Chatting at a market or a bar in your second language is a pleasure. Talking to a doctor in an emergency in a language you barely speak is not.

Countries like Spain and Portugal offer plenty of services in English alongside the local language, but there will be times when English is not enough. Settling in an area with a large expat population from your home country helps, and you can check a country’s English proficiency online before you commit.

Visa and Residency Options

You need to be able to live in your chosen country legally, so the right destination is one with a visa or permit you can actually access. If you plan to stay long term, you may eventually qualify for citizenship through naturalization.

If you are not sure where to start, our guide to the easiest countries for Americans to move to is a good place to begin. If you are retiring abroad, our roundup of countries with retirement visas covers the income requirements for each, and if you can support yourself without working, the passive income visa countries guide sets out your options.

A Closer Look at Our Top Picks

Spain

Spain combines a warm climate, a lower cost of living than most of Western Europe, and good food, which is a large part of why it consistently ranks among the most popular destinations for expats.

It is less densely populated and more politically stable than several of its neighbors. The cost of living is generally lower than elsewhere in the EU, particularly for housing, food, and utilities. Private education costs more but sits within most expat budgets.

Expats who do not qualify for public healthcare, or who would rather not use it, can take out private health insurance. Madrid, the capital, is a major center for art, history, and nightlife.

Ireland

Ireland is a popular choice for retirees who want a slower pace of life, with green countryside, small towns, and a strong pub and community culture.

The cost of living varies by location. The big cities, Dublin, Cork, and Galway, are the most expensive, while rural areas are more affordable.

Ireland provides public health services to residents, including settled expats. Where public healthcare falls short, private health insurance gives access to private treatment.

Portugal

Portugal works well for both retirees and young families, with a mix of historic towns and modern infrastructure. It has universal healthcare, a modern education system, and a cost of living that is generally lower than other EU countries and the US.

The climate is Mediterranean, with warm temperatures and a long coastline. Property and day-to-day costs remain among the more affordable in Western Europe, though prices in Lisbon and the Algarve have risen in recent years.

Canada

Canada offers strong public services, including universal healthcare and free public secondary education. Many expats add private health insurance to cover costs the public system does not.

It is multicultural and generally welcoming to immigrants, with Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta among the most popular expat destinations. The cost of living can be high, but you get political stability and a strong job market across a range of fields in return.

Germany

Germany has a high standard of living and ranks near the top of the UN Human Development Index, with a score of 0.959 in the 2025 report. Like much of the EU, its cities are green and walkable, with good public transport and relatively low air pollution.

It offers a strong economy, a well-funded healthcare system, and good infrastructure, which makes it a practical choice for expats moving for work rather than retirement.

Denmark

Denmark tops the Legatum Prosperity Index and sits near the top of almost every quality-of-life measure, on the strength of its healthcare, education, low corruption, and personal safety. If your priority is a stable, well-run society, few countries score higher.

The trade-off is cost. Denmark is expensive even by Western European standards, and taxes are high, which is what funds the public services. It also has no dedicated retirement or passive-income visa, so for non-EU citizens the realistic routes in are work, study, or family. Plan the visa side carefully before you commit.

Singapore

Singapore is one of the safest and most efficient places in the world to live, with a high Human Development Index score, excellent infrastructure, and English as a main working language. It is a major financial and business hub, which makes it a strong option if you are moving for work.

Housing is the main cost to plan for, as property and rent in Singapore are among the highest in Asia. The legal system is strict, and the climate is hot and humid year-round, so it suits some people far better than others.

Mauritius

Mauritius is an Indian Ocean island nation that has become a popular base for retirees and remote workers, helped by a warm climate, political stability, and a tax regime designed to attract foreign residents. It scores highly for development relative to the wider region.

Healthcare quality is good in the main towns, with private options aimed at the expat community, though specialized treatment can mean traveling abroad. As on most islands, imported goods are expensive, while local produce and seafood are affordable.

Panama

Panama is one of the most established destinations for American expats and retirees, helped by a dollarized economy, a warm climate, and residency programs aimed at retirees and people with stable income. Panama City offers modern, high-standard healthcare, while smaller towns offer less.

The cost of living is generally lower than in the US, though Panama City is pricier than the rest of the country. Residency rules change, so check the current requirements with a qualified immigration lawyer before making plans.

Mexico

Mexico is the most popular destination for Americans moving abroad, and proximity to the US is a large part of why: short flights home, overlapping time zones, and established expat communities in cities like Mexico City, Mérida, and the Lake Chapala area. The climate varies widely, from desert to tropical coast to temperate highlands.

The cost of living is lower than in the US, though popular expat areas have grown more expensive in recent years. Private healthcare is good and affordable in the major cities. The financial thresholds for residency have risen, so confirm the current figures before you apply.

Is There a Best Country to Live In?

So is there a best country to live in? Only for you, and only right now. The right destination is personal, and it can change over time. The indexes and rankings are guides, not answers. Once you know which three or four factors matter most to you, use them to build a shortlist of three or four countries, then dig into the visa and residency rules for each, since that is what ultimately decides whether a move is possible.

FAQ

Which countries are the best to live in for expats?

Our top picks are Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Mauritius, Panama, and Mexico, chosen for their overall quality of life, stability, and conditions for expats.

How are the best countries for expats chosen?

We weigh expat reviews, quality of life, cost of living, healthcare, safety, and job opportunities, among other factors.

What makes Spain, Ireland, and Portugal popular with expats?

Spain offers a warm climate and a lower cost of living, Ireland is known for its countryside and community feel, and Portugal pairs modern infrastructure with an affordable cost of living and a mild climate.

Which indexes are used to rank the best countries to live in?

The main ones are the Legatum Prosperity Index and the UN Human Development Report, which cover economic stability, the natural environment, education, and life expectancy. Our own cheapest and safest countries guides are also worth checking.

How does cost of living affect the rankings?

A lower cost of living makes a country more attractive, but it has to be balanced against the quality of healthcare and education.

What healthcare factors matter when choosing a country?

The quality of both public and private systems, and access to specialized treatment, are the key considerations.

How much do expat reviews affect the rankings?

They add real-world insight into settling in, work-life balance, and cultural fit, which shapes how desirable a country is in practice.