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What is MyLifeElsewhere.com?
MyLifeElsewhere.com is a free comparison site for imagining and researching life in another country or city. You pick two places, and it lines up statistics such as cost of living, geographic size, quality of life and salary needs so the differences are visible side by side rather than buried in separate reports.
H3 What it actually does
The site is built around a few tools, each aimed at a slightly different question:
- Country and city comparisons — head-to-head stats between any two places, with popular pairings such as United States vs. Canada or United States vs. Spain shown as ready-made starting points.
- Quality of Life — compares healthcare, education and safety across territories.
- Cost of Living — compares groceries, rent and similar prices at country, city and US-state level.
- Size Comparison and True Size Map — overlays countries, states and cities on a map so you can see real area instead of Mercator-distorted shapes.
- Salary Estimator — estimates the salary you would need elsewhere to keep your current lifestyle.
- Best Country For... — composite rankings for groups such as digital nomads, retirees and families.
H3 Who gets the most out of it
It suits people at the daydreaming or early-research stage: someone weighing a move, a student curious about being born elsewhere, or a remote worker shortlisting countries. It is a starting point, not a relocation service — treat the numbers as orientation, then verify visas, taxes and current prices with official sources before making decisions.
H3 A concrete example
Suppose you live in the United States and are considering Portugal. You could compare the two countries for cost of living, check the Quality of Life breakdown for healthcare and safety, run the Salary Estimator to see what income preserves your lifestyle, then use the size map to get a feel for the geography. In one session you would have a rough picture of the trade-offs rather than a single statistic.
H3 Useful next step
Start with a comparison you already care about, then work outward: check the cost-of-living tool for a specific city, not just the country, and sanity-check anything decision-critical against an official source such as USA.gov for Americans abroad or European Union for EU entry and residency basics.
How can I compare the cost of living between two countries on MyLifeElsewhere?
Use the Cost of Living tool, then compare the two places directly. On MyLifeElsewhere.com, the site offers a "Cost of Living" section that covers both countries and cities, described as showing how prices for groceries, rent, and more stack up worldwide. The simplest route is to start a comparison between your home country and the destination country, then switch to the cost-of-living view rather than reading the general country summary.
For a practical comparison:
- Enter the two places you care about — for example, the United States vs. Spain, or a specific pair of cities.
- Open the cost-of-living tool for that pair.
- Read the categories separately rather than as one number: groceries, rent and other regular expenses often move in different directions.
- If you are considering a move for work, pair this with the Salary Estimator, which the site describes as calculating the salary you would need to maintain your current lifestyle.
A concrete scenario: someone in Chicago considering Valencia would compare the two cities, note that rent may fall while some imported goods cost more, then use the salary estimator to see what offer would keep their lifestyle intact. The trade-off is that country-level averages hide big differences between cities, so city-to-city comparisons are usually more useful for real budgeting.
Next step: if you are weighing several destinations, run the same comparison for each and keep a short list of the categories that matter most to you — housing, food and transport — instead of relying on a single overall impression.
What salary would I need to maintain my current lifestyle if I moved to another country?
You can get a rough answer with the Salary Estimator tool on MyLifeElsewhere.com. It's built for exactly this question: moving somewhere new and calculating what salary you'd need to keep your current lifestyle. Pair it with the site's cost-of-living comparisons to sanity-check the number.
MyLifeElsewhere.com
How to use it in practice
- Enter your current salary and home location.
- Pick the destination country (or city, since the site compares cities too).
- Compare the result against the site's cost-of-living breakdown for groceries, rent and other categories, rather than trusting a single figure.
H3. What the number can and can't tell you The estimator is a starting point, not a job offer. It typically reflects price levels, not your personal situation. Three things move the real answer:
- Housing: rent dominates budgets in most destinations, and it varies enormously between cities in the same country. A country-level estimate can mislead if you'd live in a capital versus a smaller city.
- Taxes and benefits: take-home pay, income tax, social contributions and healthcare costs differ by country. A salary that looks generous before tax may not be after.
- Lifestyle drift: your spending habits may change abroad — you might cook more, drive less, or travel home often. Those shifts aren't in a generic index.
H3. A concrete scenario Suppose you earn a mid-range salary in a large US city and are considering Portugal or Mexico. Run the estimator for each, then check the cost-of-living pages for rent and groceries in the specific city you'd target. If the estimator says you need less, ask whether that's because housing is cheaper or because the index excludes something you'd still pay for, like private health insurance or frequent flights home.
Related tools worth a look
- Quality of Life comparisons for healthcare, education and safety, which affect what you'd spend and what you'd get.
- Best Country For... rankings, useful if you're flexible about the destination and want to filter by nomad, retirement or family criteria.
- Cost of Living pages for countries and cities, to ground the salary figure in actual categories.
A reasonable next step: shortlist two or three destinations, run the estimator and cost-of-living comparison for each, then verify taxes and housing with a local source or a recent arrival before making any decision.
Which countries are the top destinations for United States residents according to MyLifeElsewhere?
MyLifeElsewhere's page lists the top destinations for United States residents, based on foreign-born population figures from UN DESA (2020):
- Mexico — 799,248 residents
- Canada — 273,226 residents
- United Kingdom — 170,771 residents
- Puerto Rico — 159,515 residents
- Germany — 152,639 residents
- Australia — 116,620 residents
Note that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory rather than a foreign country, so it appears here as a destination for residents moving from the 50 states rather than as international emigration.
How to use this list These numbers reflect where U.S. residents already live abroad, not necessarily where moving is easiest or cheapest. If you are weighing a move, treat the list as a starting point: pick two or three of these destinations and run a side-by-side comparison of cost of living, healthcare and salary expectations against your current city. That turns a popularity ranking into a decision you can actually act on.
How does the true size map on MyLifeElsewhere work to compare countries and cities?
The true size map is a drag-and-drop tool for placing countries, U.S. states and cities onto an interactive map so you can compare their real land area side by side. Instead of relying on a standard world map, where high-latitude countries look far larger than they are, you move shapes onto the map and judge them against each other directly.
According to the site's own description, the comparison covers countries, U.S. states and cities, and sits alongside related tools such as size comparison and a "build your own true size map" option. The underlying idea is the one behind the well-known Mercator distortion: Greenland, Canada and Russia appear oversized on conventional maps, while places near the equator look smaller than they are.
How you would actually use it
- Pick a place you know well, such as your home country or state, and drag it next to a destination you are considering.
- Add a city for a finer-grained check — for example, how a European capital's footprint compares with a U.S. city you know.
- Move shapes around rather than reading numbers, so the comparison is visual and immediate.
Who it suits
| Reader | Useful for |
|---|---|
| Someone comparing a move | Judging how much land, and by extension how spread out, a destination is |
| A student or teacher | Showing map projection distortion concretely |
| A curious traveller | Satisfying "how big is that really?" questions in a few seconds |
The trade-off is that area is only one dimension of a place. A large country can be mostly empty, and a small city can be densely packed, so the map tells you about scale, not about livability, cost or climate. Treat it as a starting point and pair it with the site's other tools — quality of life, cost of living and the salary estimator — before drawing conclusions about a move.
A practical next step: open MyLifeElsewhere and drag your current country next to one you are curious about, then check the cost of living comparison for the same pair to see whether the size difference matches your expectations.
What are the best countries for digital nomads, retirement, or families according to MyLifeElsewhere?
MyLifeElsewhere does not publish a single fixed "best country" list for these groups. Instead, it offers a Best Country For... tool that produces composite rankings scored across quality-of-life and cost metrics, with separate entry points for Digital Nomads, Retirement, and Families, plus a full rankings index. The site's core purpose is country and city comparison — cost of living, quality of life (healthcare, education, safety), geographic size, and salary needs — so the "best" answer depends on which metrics you weight and which home country you're comparing from.
What each audience can actually use
| Audience | Relevant tool or comparison | What it helps you weigh |
|---|---|---|
| Digital nomads | Best Country For... Digital Nomads; Cost of Living (countries and cities) | Day-to-day prices for groceries and rent, plus whatever quality-of-life factors the composite includes |
| Retirees | Best Country For... Retirement; Quality of Life; Cost of Living | Healthcare, safety and cost pressures that matter on a fixed income |
| Families | Best Country For... Families; Quality of Life | Education, healthcare and safety across territories |
Two limits are worth knowing before you treat any ranking as a shortlist. First, the composite rankings are built from the site's own chosen metrics — a country that scores well for a nomad on cost may score poorly for a family that prioritises education, so read the underlying factors rather than the position number. Second, the site's data is comparative, not personal: it tells you how places differ, not whether you'd be happy or legally able to settle there. Visa, tax and residency rules sit outside what a comparison site covers.
A practical way to use it
Start from your own situation rather than the leaderboard. If you're a US resident, the site's own "Top destinations for United States residents" list — Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Germany, Australia, based on UN DESA foreign-born population figures for 2020 — shows where large numbers of Americans actually live, which is a useful reality check against a ranking that might push you somewhere with almost no existing community.
Then run the numbers in this order:
- Cost of Living for your candidate countries, and for specific cities — national averages hide huge internal gaps.
- Salary Estimator if you'll be earning locally: it estimates the salary you'd need to maintain your current lifestyle.
- Quality of Life to check healthcare, education and safety against what you personally need.
- Best Country For... last, as a cross-check on your shortlist rather than the starting point.
If you want a wider view of how the same destinations are rated, Nomad List covers cities for remote workers and InterNations publishes expat surveys on settling in and family life abroad. For the underlying comparative data the site draws on, Numbeo is the best-known source for cost-of-living and quality-of-life figures, and OECD publishes comparable well-being and education indicators across member countries.
One concrete scenario: a remote worker comparing Mexico and Portugal would use MyLifeElsewhere to see rent and grocery gaps and a quality-of-life comparison, then check visa and tax rules separately — because the tool will tell you which is cheaper, not which one you can legally stay in.
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