Data Methodology

Salary Arbitrage Calculator

How It Works

The calculator answers one question: if you earn a certain salary in a specific US city, how much would you need to earn in a foreign country to maintain the same standard of living?

The calculation uses three inputs:

• Your US city's Regional Price Parity (RPP) from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. This measures how expensive your city is relative to the US national average. A city with RPP of 1.15 is 15% more expensive than the national average.
• The destination country's Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) from the World Bank (indicator PA.NUS.PRVT.PP). This measures how many units of local currency are needed to buy the same goods that one US dollar buys in the United States. PPP values are embedded in the calculator and refreshed quarterly.
• The current exchange rate between USD and the local currency, retrieved live from open.er-api.com and cached for 24 hours.

The Formula

Price Level = Country PPP ÷ Exchange Rate

Purchasing Power Multiplier = (1 ÷ Price Level) × City RPP

Equivalent Income = Your Income ÷ Multiplier

Annual Savings = Your Income − Equivalent Income (remote workers only)

Example

If a destination country has a purchasing power multiplier of 2.0, a person earning $100,000 in the US would only need to earn $50,000 locally to maintain the same lifestyle. If that person keeps their US income while living abroad, the $50,000 difference is their cost-of-living advantage each year.

Limitations

Results assume you maintain your US income while paying local costs. Taxes (US and local), housing market variation, healthcare costs, and personal spending habits are not factored in. Use results as a directional estimate, not a precise financial forecast.

Quality of Life Score

How the Score Is Calculated

Each country receives a Quality of Life Score from 0 to 100%, based on eight metrics. Each metric is scored 1–10 from its raw source value, then weighted:

• Safety — 25% (Global Peace Index)
• Healthcare — 20% (UHC Service Coverage Index, WHO/World Bank)
• Happiness — 15% (World Happiness Report via Our World in Data)
• Human Development — 15% (HDI via UNDP/Our World in Data)
• Pollution — 8% (Numbeo Pollution Index)
• Unemployment — 7% (World Bank)
• Internet Speed — 5% (Speedtest Global Index)
• Traffic — 5% (Numbeo Traffic Index)

The final score is a weighted average of all available metrics. If a metric is unavailable for a country, its weight is redistributed proportionally across the remaining metrics.

Score Labels

• Outstanding destination — 90% and above
• Excellent destination — 80–89%
• Very good destination — 70–79%
• Good destination — 60–69%
• Moderate destination — 50–59%
• Mixed destination — 40–49%
• Limited destination — 30–39%
• Challenging destination — below 30%

Individual Metrics

Safety

Source: Global Peace Index (Institute for Economics and Peace). A composite measure of societal safety, ongoing conflict, and militarization, scored 1.0–5.0 (lower = more peaceful). Converted to our 1–10 scale with GPI ≤ 1.3 scoring 10/10 and GPI ≥ 3.5 scoring 1/10.

Healthcare

Source: UHC Service Coverage Index (WHO/World Bank, indicator SH.UHC.SRVS.CV.XD). Measures coverage of essential health services across 14 tracer indicators on a 0–100 scale. Converted linearly: score = round(UHC ÷ 10). For countries excluded from the World Bank dataset (e.g. Taiwan), the GBD Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index from IHME is used as a proxy.

Happiness

Source: World Happiness Report (Gallup World Poll) via Our World in Data. Uses the Cantril ladder score (0–10 scale) directly as the metric score. Small island states not surveyed by Gallup are marked as "No data".

Human Development Index (HDI)

Source: UNDP Human Development Index via Our World in Data. A composite of life expectancy, years of schooling, and GNI per capita, on a 0–1 scale. HDI ≥ 0.94 scores 10/10; HDI ≥ 0.90 scores 9/10; decreasing by approximately 0.04 per point down to 1/10. For countries not in the UNDP dataset (e.g. Taiwan), official government statistics using the UNDP methodology are used.

Pollution

Source: Numbeo Pollution Index (user-contributed composite of air, water, and environmental quality). Lower values are better. Index below 30 = 10/10; index above 135 = 3/10. Countries with insufficient Numbeo data are marked as "No data".

Unemployment

Source: World Bank (indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS). Annual unemployment rate as a percentage of the labor force. Rate below 3% = 10/10; rate above 20% = 3/10. For countries excluded from World Bank (e.g. Taiwan), official national statistics bureau data is used.

Internet Speed

Source: Speedtest Global Index via Wikipedia. National median fixed broadband download speed in Mbps. Speeds above 250 Mbps = 10/10; speeds below 5 Mbps = 1/10.

Traffic

Source: Numbeo Traffic Index. Measures estimated annual time lost to traffic congestion. Index below 2,000 = 10/10; index above 8,000 = 3/10. Countries with insufficient Numbeo data are marked as "No data".

Mobility Metrics

Four additional relocation metrics are tracked for each country but are not included in the Quality of Life Score:

• Visa-free days: Number of days a US passport holder can stay without a visa or on visa-on-arrival, sourced from the Passport Index dataset on GitHub.
• English Proficiency: EF English Proficiency Index score. Countries where English is the primary native language receive a "Native English" designation rather than an EF score.
• Tax System: Whether the country uses worldwide taxation (taxes global income), territorial taxation (taxes local income only), or no personal income tax. Classified from public tax authority sources. This is a high-level comparison — individual tax obligations depend on residency status, treaties, and personal circumstances. Consult a qualified tax advisor.
• Digital Nomad Visa: Whether the country offers an official long-stay visa program for remote workers. Sourced from Citizen Remote and official government sources.

Country Match Quiz

How It Works

Country Match is a 10-question quiz that scores all 82 countries against your personal priorities. Each question captures a dimension that affects relocation fit: monthly budget, climate preference, healthcare importance, English language comfort, remote work status, interest in digital nomad visas, desired safety level, family situation, cultural openness, and lifestyle pace.

Scoring

Each answer maps to weighted adjustments across a set of country attributes. For example, a low monthly budget increases the relative score of countries with lower cost of living, while a strong preference for English-speaking environments boosts countries with high EF English Proficiency Index scores. Safety weighting pulls from the same Global Peace Index used in the Quality of Life score.

Each country starts with a base score derived from its Quality of Life Score, then receives positive or negative adjustments from each quiz answer. The final match percentage reflects how well a country's objective attributes align with your stated priorities. Countries are ranked from highest to lowest match score.

Limitations

Country Match uses public data to estimate fit. It cannot account for personal taste, individual relationships, specific city choices within a country, or real-world factors that vary by neighborhood or season. Treat results as a structured starting point for research, not a final recommendation.

Retire Abroad Calculator (FIRE)

How It Works

The Retire Abroad Calculator is designed for Americans pursuing financial independence or early retirement. It takes your current savings and applies a safe withdrawal rate to calculate a sustainable annual income, then shows how far that income goes in each country using the same purchasing power methodology as the Salary Arbitrage Calculator.

Safe Withdrawal Rate

The calculator uses the standard 4% rule as its default withdrawal rate, based on the Trinity Study and subsequent research on long-term portfolio sustainability. Users can adjust this rate to reflect more conservative or aggressive planning assumptions.

Cost of Living Integration

Monthly budget estimates are sourced from the WhereNext open data API. The calculator compares your projected withdrawal income against estimated local costs to show whether your savings are sufficient to retire in each country, and how many additional years of savings would be required if not.

Limitations

The calculator does not account for US taxes on retirement income, Social Security timing, healthcare costs, or currency risk. It is a directional planning tool. Consult a financial planner before making retirement decisions based on these estimates.

Cost of Living

Monthly budget estimates (single person and couple) and cost index data are sourced from the WhereNext open data API (getwherenext.com). Cost index is expressed relative to the US (100 = same as US average). Data is updated quarterly.

Country Facts

Geographic and demographic data (area, population, capital, languages, currencies, borders, memberships) is sourced from the REST Countries API v5 (restcountries.com). Income inequality (Gini coefficient) is sourced from the World Bank.

Data Updates

All quality of life and mobility data is updated quarterly. PPP values are refreshed from the World Bank API quarterly and embedded in the calculator. Exchange rates are fetched live and cached for 24 hours. Country facts (population, borders, etc.) are updated annually as they rarely change.

Missing Data

Some countries lack data for specific metrics due to source limitations — for example, small island nations not surveyed by the World Happiness Report, or countries excluded from World Bank databases for geopolitical reasons (Taiwan). Where a reliable alternative source exists using the same definition, that source is used. Otherwise the metric is displayed as "Not available from public data sources" and excluded from the weighted average calculation.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or spotted an error?

contact@leavingamerica.co