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EnglishWhat Is MyLifeElsewhere.com?
Updated
MyLifeElsewhere.com is a free-to-browse comparison site that lets you put two countries or cities side by side and see how they differ on cost of living, quality of life, geographic size, and salary. It is most useful if you are weighing a move abroad, curious how your home country stacks up against another, or want a quick visual sense of how large a place really is. The site describes itself as a "collaborative community" built around the question: if you moved to another country, what would your life be like?
What you can actually do on the site
The homepage centers on a single action: pick two places and compare them. From there, the site organizes its features into distinct tools rather than one long report.
| Tool | What it compares | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Quality of Life | Healthcare, education, safety, and more across territories | Judging overall living conditions, not just money |
| Cost of Living | Groceries, rent, and other prices, worldwide, by country or city | Budgeting a move or checking purchasing power |
| Size Comparison | Overlays countries, US states, and cities on a map | Seeing true geographic scale |
| Salary Estimator | Calculates the salary you'd need to keep your current lifestyle | Translating a job offer into real terms |
| Build Your Own True Size Map | Drag-and-drop countries onto an interactive map | Custom size comparisons |
| Best Country For... | Composite rankings across quality-of-life and cost metrics | Filtering by a goal: digital nomads, retirement, families |
The "Best Country For..." rankings are scored across multiple metrics, so they are a starting filter rather than a verdict — treat them as a shortlist to investigate, not a decision.
How the comparison works in practice
- Choose two places. You can start from a popular pairing (the site lists many "United States vs." comparisons) or run a random comparison.
- Read the statistics. The site surfaces the differences it considers most relevant — cost of living and geographic size are named explicitly, with quality-of-life factors available through the dedicated tool.
- Cross-check with a second tool. A cost-of-living result and a salary estimate answer different questions; using both gives a more realistic picture than either alone.
The expected result is a set of side-by-side figures and map overlays, not a personalized recommendation. You still supply the judgment about whether the trade-offs suit you.
Where the data comes from
The site credits sources for specific datasets. Its "Top destinations for United States residents" list, for example, is labeled as foreign-born population data from UN DESA (2020), showing Mexico (799,248 residents), Canada (273,226), the United Kingdom (170,771), Puerto Rico (159,515), Germany (152,639), and Australia (116,620). Because figures like these are tied to a stated year and source, check the label before reusing a number — migration and price data age quickly.
Common uses and one caveat
- Planning a move: compare cost of living and required salary before accepting an offer.
- Satisfying curiosity: run a comparison between your country and one you've wondered about.
- Teaching geography: the true-size map addresses the Mercator projection problem, where countries near the poles appear larger than they are. The site's own blog covers this distortion directly.
- Caveat: the platform is community-oriented and aggregates statistics from multiple sources. For anything with financial or legal consequences — visas, taxes, residency — verify against official government sources rather than the comparison alone.
Getting started
Go to mylifeelsewhere.com, enter two places, and read the comparison. If cost is your main concern, follow up with the Cost of Living tool and the Salary Estimator; if lifestyle is, start with Quality of Life. The site is designed for phone use as well, so comparisons scale to a mobile screen.