The world’s 10 best countries to live in – and six are in Europe

Been dreaming of a life abroad, but haven’t decided on where to go yet? Then you might just want to take a look at this new ranking.

Produced by Nomad Capitalist, the Nomad Lifestyle Index evaluated 63 destinations against five pillars: Nature and climate; tax; residence and access; safety and freedom; and quality of life and infrastructure.

Within these pillars, the ranking looked at things like air quality, extreme weather risk, routes to legal residence and citizenship, the Global Peace Index, life expectancy, cost of living and broadband speed, among others.

After crunching the numbers, the top 10 is filled with European countries, including the number one spot: Monaco.

Every destination was given a score out of 100 for each of the five pillars, which were then used to calculate an overall score.

The three top destinations – Monaco, Andorra and the United Arab Emirates – were separated by just 0.74 points.

The best places to live in Europe

Monaco claimed the top spot as it was the only country to receive a perfect 100 score under the quality of life and infrastructure pillar, but it also ranked highly for its safety and freedom score.

In second place, Andorra leads in the safety and freedom pillar while also having the fourth-best nature score, with the cleanest air of any European country included in the Nomad Lifestyle Index. It was pipped to the top spot because of its route to citizenship, which takes 20 years of residence and requires a language and history test.

Malta took fourth place, with praise for its strong passport and route to naturalisation within five years. It also ranked highly in the nature pillar, but was held back by its tax score and quality of life and infrastructure rating.

Portugal, a long-time favourite of digital nomads, came fifth, ranking highly for its safety and freedom, residence and access, and tax scores, but was let down by its nature score as it is exposed to extreme weather conditions as a result of climate change.

Cyprus placed sixth, coming second in the residence and access pillar, with a strong passport and seven years to naturalisation. Its quality of life and infrastructure score held it back, as well as the air quality.

Rounding out the top 10 is Switzerland, which performed well in the safety and freedom pillar.