15 countries · reviewed September 4, 2026
Everything a move abroad costs, before you commit to it.
Cost of living, visas, tax and healthcare for 15 countries. Every number linked to the source it came from.
Figures from the OECD, Eurostat and the World Bank, and from each country's own immigration and tax authority.
Country guides
Ordered by how many Americans are searching for each move.
Start with the number that decides it
Your income, against real price levels. No account, nothing sent anywhere — it runs in your browser.
A ratio, not a budget: it scales your income by the country's overall consumer price level against the US average, rent included.
Where that income goes furthest
Every country in the dataset, ranked by what the figure above is worth at local price levels. Showing $4,230 a month.
- 1Thailand$13,096index 32
- 2Mexico$6,823index 62
- 3Portugal$6,714index 63
- 4Japan$6,438index 66
- 5Spain$6,043index 70
- 6Italy$5,958index 71
- 7Germany$5,916index 72
- 8New Zealand$4,862index 87
- 9Netherlands$4,807index 88
- 10Canada$4,648index 91
- 11Sweden$4,598index 92
- 12United Kingdom$4,598index 92
- 13Norway$4,273index 99
- 14Australia$4,230index 100
- 15Ireland$4,230index 100
Start from a question, not a country
Each of these ranks every country on one stated measure, and every row links to the guide that carries its sources.
- The cheapest countries to move to from the US — Overall price level including rent, US national average = 100
- Countries where Americans can get residency without a job offer — Documented routes that do not require a job offer from a local employer
- Digital nomad visas for Americans, compared — A published residence route of type "digital nomad"
- The best countries to retire to on a US income — A published retirement route, ordered by overall price level (US = 100)
- What healthcare costs Americans abroad, country by country — Typical monthly private insurance premium, US dollars
How to use this
In this order. The money question decides whether the other three are worth asking.
Check the money first
Run your take-home pay through the calculator. If the number does not work, the visa question is moot.
Find a route you actually qualify for
Every country page lists the residence routes open to US citizens, with the real fee, the duration, and whether it leads anywhere permanent — linked to the immigration authority's own page.
Understand what you still owe the US
American citizenship comes with a filing obligation that does not end at the border. Know how the treaty, the FEIE and the foreign tax credit interact before you resign.
Sort healthcare before you land
Most residence permits require proof of cover from day one, months before you are inside the local system.
Why these numbers can be trusted
Most relocation content recycles crowdsourced price data and immigration rules that expired two governments ago. This site is built the other way round: from official price-level statistics published by the OECD, Eurostat and the World Bank, and from each country's own immigration and tax authority.
Every page shows when its data was last reviewed and links each figure to its source, so you can check the claim rather than trust the site. Where a figure could not be verified to that standard, the page says so.