Relocation · Quality vs Cost
Where does your money buy a good life — not just a cheap one?
Cheap rent with dial-up internet and dodgy streets is no bargain. Weight internet, safety, healthcare, air and English your way — then see which countries earn the "cheap & great" quadrant on your budget.
Quality of Life vs Cost Matrix
Cheap is easy — cheap and good is the trick. Weight what matters to you, set your budget, and see which countries land in the "cheap & great" quadrant.
41 countries ranked · on $3,000/month you'd live "like royalty" in 19 of them.
| # | Country | Quality | Net (Mbps) | Safety | Essentials | Your life | 🛂 / 🪤 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇸🇬 Singapore (Singapore) | 94.6 | 300 | 100 | $1,313/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 2 | 🇩🇰 Denmark (Copenhagen) | 92.4 | 230 | 95 | $2,112/mo | comfortable | — · 183d |
| 3 | 🇸🇪 Sweden (Stockholm) | 92.2 | 200 | 93 | $1,888/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 4 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland (Zürich) | 91 | 240 | 96 | $2,716/mo | comfortable | — · 90d |
| 5 | 🇳🇴 Norway (Oslo) | 90.4 | 180 | 96 | $1,945/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 6 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands (Amsterdam) | 89.4 | 200 | 96 | $1,911/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 7 | 🇮🇪 Ireland (Dublin) | 88.8 | 150 | 96 | $1,888/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 8 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand (Auckland) | 88.2 | 160 | 91 | $2,089/mo | comfortable | — · 183d |
| 9 | 🇨🇦 Canada (Toronto) | 87.8 | 180 | 88 | $1,959/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 10 | 🇪🇸 Spain (Barcelona) | 86.2 | 220 | 96 | $1,395/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 11 | 🇺🇸 United States (New York) | 86 | 250 | 65 | $2,410/mo | comfortable | — · 183d |
| 12 | 🇵🇹 Portugal (Lisbon) | 84.6 | 180 | 96 | $1,292/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 13 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom (London) | 84 | 120 | 93 | $2,008/mo | comfortable | — · 183d |
| 14 | 🇫🇷 France (Paris) | 83.6 | 210 | 92 | $1,686/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 15 | 🇦🇺 Australia (Sydney) | 83.2 | 80 | 95 | $2,182/mo | comfortable | — · 183d |
| 16 | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates (Dubai) | 82.2 | 280 | 96 | $1,374/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 17 | 🇰🇷 South Korea (Seoul) | 82 | 260 | 97 | $1,214/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 18 | 🇯🇵 Japan (Tokyo) | 81.8 | 200 | 99 | $1,363/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 19 | 🇩🇪 Germany (Berlin) | 77.4 | 100 | 95 | $1,797/mo | very comfortable | — · 183d |
| 20 | 🇭🇺 Hungary (Budapest) | 75 | 180 | 96 | $1,049/mo | like royalty | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 21 | 🇮🇹 Italy (Rome) | 72.8 | 95 | 97 | $1,476/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 22 | 🇵🇱 Poland (Warsaw) | 72.8 | 140 | 95 | $994/mo | like royalty | — · 183d |
| 23 | 🇨🇿 Czechia (Prague) | 71.8 | 90 | 95 | $1,217/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 24 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | 71.6 | 110 | 96 | $570/mo | like royalty | 🛂✓ · 182d |
| 25 | 🇨🇱 Chile (Santiago) | 71 | 250 | 62 | $981/mo | like royalty | — · 183d |
| 26 | 🇬🇷 Greece (Athens) | 70.2 | 65 | 95 | $1,243/mo | very comfortable | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 27 | 🇹🇭 Thailand (Chiang Mai) | 67.2 | 230 | 68 | $548/mo | like royalty | 🛂✓ · 180d |
| 28 | 🇨🇳 China (Shanghai) | 66.4 | 220 | 97 | $1,006/mo | like royalty | — · 183d |
| 29 | 🇵🇭 Philippines (Manila) | 63.2 | 90 | 74 | $642/mo | like royalty | — · 180d |
| 30 | 🇦🇷 Argentina (Buenos Aires) | 62.4 | 90 | 73 | $927/mo | like royalty | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 31 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) | 56.8 | 120 | 94 | $1,011/mo | like royalty | — · 183d |
| 32 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia (Bali) | 56.4 | 30 | 98 | $554/mo | like royalty | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 33 | 🇹🇷 Türkiye (Istanbul) | 55.4 | 55 | 81 | $708/mo | like royalty | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 34 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam (Da Nang) | 54 | 90 | 70 | $530/mo | like royalty | — · 183d |
| 35 | 🇮🇳 India (Bengaluru) | 49.2 | 60 | 83 | $435/mo | like royalty | — · 182d |
| 36 | 🇨🇴 Colombia (Medellín) | 48.6 | 120 | 0 | $697/mo | like royalty | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 37 | 🇧🇷 Brazil (São Paulo) | 45.6 | 150 | 0 | $935/mo | like royalty | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 38 | 🇲🇽 Mexico (Mexico City) | 43.6 | 70 | 0 | $1,150/mo | like royalty | 🛂✗ · 183d |
| 39 | 🇪🇬 Egypt (Cairo) | 40.4 | 45 | 92 | $223/mo | like royalty | — · 183d |
| 40 | 🇿🇦 South Africa (Cape Town) | 40.4 | 50 | 0 | $809/mo | like royalty | 🛂✓ · 183d |
| 41 | 🇳🇬 Nigeria (Lagos) | 20.6 | 30 | 6 | $188/mo | like royalty | — · 183d |
🛂 = nomad-visa program (✓ your budget meets its income floor) · 🪤 = days to tax residency. Curated country-level estimates (2026-07-12) — city variation is real.
Lower → higher · click a country to open its page
Frequently asked questions
- How is the quality score calculated?
- Five country-level metrics — median broadband speed, safety, healthcare, air quality, and how far English gets you — combined as a weighted mean you control with the priority sliders. Internet is normalized so 250 Mbps scores 100.
- Where does the data come from?
- Three metrics are objective, refreshed at build time (last: 2026-07-12): safety from the World Bank intentional-homicide rate, healthcare from World Bank life expectancy, and air quality from WHO PM2.5 monitoring. Median broadband speed and English usefulness stay curated (no clean free feed). The cost side uses this site's Pint & Property essentials basket.
- What does 'lives like royalty' mean?
- Your monthly budget divided by the local cost of single-person essentials: under 1× is out of budget, 1–1.5× comfortable, 1.5–2.5× very comfortable, and 2.5×+ is royalty territory.
- Why country-level instead of cities?
- Our purchasing-power cost data is country-level, and pretending otherwise would be false precision. Representative cities are shown as labels, and each score note flags where city variation is big.
- Can AI agents query the matrix?
- Yes — GET /api/livability.json with optional budget, minInternet, minSafety, maxBudget and weights params, or the rank_livability MCP tool. No key required.
For AI agents: GET /api/livability.json?minInternet=80&maxBudget=3000 — see /llms.txt and the rank_livability MCP tool.