The Sovereign Man
Cost Of Living Index

To help you make a more informed decision, we also included other pieces of relevant information for each country:

• Crime situation — the safer the better
• Climate — It is generally better to live in a place with a pleasant and agreeable climate, rather than in a scorched desert or in Siberia
• General level of pollution — clean air and water add to our wellbeing and life satisfaction
• English proficiency of locals — this factor may play an important role if you do not want to learn a local language
• Country’s taxation system — few people want to move overseas to pay more in taxes there

Keep in mind, however, that all of this data (except Taxation) is crowdsourced. It is people’s perception of the climate, safety, etc. in each country. 

In other words, it’s subjective. For example, what people consider “safe” in Canada can differ significantly from what people consider “safe” in Brazil.

The same goes for the climate. Some people love tropical weather, for example, while others can’t stand it.

Still, even this subjective information is very valuable because it describes how locals and expats, on average, feel about the country’s climate, crime, pollution, etc.

For example, we defined five categories for climate: “Very comfortable,” “Comfortable,” “Average,” “Bearable,” and “Uncomfortable.” As the cost of living, we also added a corresponding number range. In this case, numbers range from 1 (Very Comfortable) to 5 (Uncomfortable).

(To try to compensate for subjectiveness in Safety gradings, we accounted for the hard data — the homicide rates in each country.)

And why do we care about the tax system? 

If you decide to spend significant time in the country, in most cases, you will be caught in the country’s tax net. You typically need to spend more than six months a year on the ground for this to happen, but there are also many exceptions.

Countries with “territorial” taxation systems and countries with “no personal income tax” obviously get extra points here. 

In the former countries, you will only be taxed on your income generated within the country’s territory. And in the latter, there will generally be no tax to pay at all.

But don’t discard countries with residence-based taxation either. Although they do tax their tax residents on their worldwide income, many of the country’s boast low tax rates across the board (Montenegro, Andorra, etc). And others offer special tax breaks to new residents (Portugal, Spain, Chile, etc.) making your life there practically tax-free for several years.

All of that tax information we tried to reflect in the Taxation Type column of the table and pop-ups that would if you hover a mouse over the appropriate cell.

For more information about taxation in each country, refer to this comprehensive resource compiled by Deloitte.