This guide is for English-speaking movers, from the UK, the US or another EU country, who want one ranked list of where in the EU to live. It scores all 27 member states on seven equally weighted factors, prints every weight, sets an official survey beside our score, and then shows how the top three changes for four typical movers.
The scope is EU members only. Lists that include Switzerland, Norway or the Balkan countries outside the EU answer a different question, so their order is not comparable with this one.
Best countries in Europe to live: all 27 EU ranked
The MoveMap score is the plain average of seven 0-100 estimates from the country model behind our quiz and our other guides. Each factor counts one seventh. We use equal weights because there is no neutral way to say that safety matters twice as much as transport; your own weights are what a personalized ranking is for.
| Factor | Weight | Why it is in |
|---|---|---|
| Safety Our safety estimate | 1/7 | Day-to-day security for you and anyone moving with you. See the safest countries in Europe. |
| Healthcare Our healthcare estimate | 1/7 | Quality of and access to care once you are resident. See the best healthcare in Europe. |
| Affordability 100 minus our cost-of-living index | 1/7 | What everyday life costs, so cheaper scores higher. See the cheapest country to live in Europe. |
| Pay after rent Share of a typical local net salary left after a typical one-person rent | 1/7 | Whether a local wage covers housing, for anyone earning locally. See the best value EU countries. |
| English Our English-friendliness estimate | 1/7 | How far you get before you learn the local language. See English speaking countries in Europe. |
| Political stability Our political stability estimate | 1/7 | Whether the rules you move under are likely to hold. |
| Public transport Our public transport estimate | 1/7 | Whether you can live without a car. See the best public transport in Europe. |
Left out on purpose: tax, climate, the visa route and the citizenship clock. They depend on your passport, how you earn and the weather you like, so one average would mislead more readers than it helps. Beside our score is one number we did not make: Eurostat’s average rating of overall life satisfaction, from 0 to 10, in its 2025 survey of people aged 16 and over, the latest year that covers all 27 countries.
| Country | MoveMap score* | Life satisfaction, 0-10† |
|---|---|---|
| Finland | 74 | 7.8 |
| Denmark | 74 | 7.7 |
| Sweden | 73 | 7.4 |
| Luxembourg | 71 | 7.4 (b) |
| Austria | 70 | 7.7 |
| Netherlands | 70 | 7.6 |
| Germany | 69 | 7.0 |
| Estonia | 67 | 7.3 |
| Belgium | 66 | 7.6 |
| Slovenia | 66 | 7.6 |
| Czechia | 66 | 7.4 |
| Ireland | 65 | 7.6 |
| Lithuania | 65 | 7.3 (p) |
| France | 64 | 7.1 (u) |
| Latvia | 64 | 6.9 |
| Portugal | 63 | 7.3 (u) |
| Spain | 63 | 7.2 |
| Malta | 63 | 7.6 |
| Slovakia | 62 | 7.4 |
| Croatia | 61 | 7.4 |
| Poland | 61 | 7.7 (u) |
| Cyprus | 60 | 7.4 |
| Hungary | 60 | 7.1 (u) |
| Greece | 59 | 6.9 |
| Italy | 59 | 7.1 |
| Romania | 59 | 7.8 |
| Bulgaria | 57 | 6.3 |
This ranking is for an average person. Rank all 27 for your passport, budget and family.
Rank them for meWhat the table cannot settle: whether you qualify for a residence permit, how a country will tax your income, and how your region differs from the national picture. Those are questions for the country’s immigration authority and, on tax, a cross-border tax advisor.
Best country in Europe to live: why Finland leads
Finland comes first at 74, level with Denmark once rounded (74.1 against 73.7), and Sweden is third at 73. Finland has the highest safety and political stability estimates in our data, 92 each, and the best pay after rent: a typical local net salary keeps 62% after a typical rent. Healthcare (85), English (80) and public transport (80) are strong too.
Outside data points the same way. Eurostat’s 2025 survey puts Finland joint top for life satisfaction at 7.8 out of 10, and the World Happiness Report says Finland has topped its rankings since 2018.
Its two biggest drawbacks:
- Cost. Finland scores 28 for affordability, the eighth most expensive EU country in our data. The pay-after-rent strength only helps if you earn a Finnish salary; on a pension or a foreign income you meet the prices in full.
- Language. English gets you a long way, at 80, but Finnish scores 20/100 on our language-ease estimate, the joint lowest in the EU with Hungarian, so learning it is a long project. Finland is also one of the cold climates in our model.
Denmark has the joint highest healthcare estimate (86, with France) and English at 90, but it is the second most expensive country in our data after Luxembourg, which is why it trails by a fraction.
The survey and our score do not always agree, and the gap is useful. Romania matches Finland on life satisfaction at 7.8 but sits 26th of 27 on our score, because our estimates for its healthcare (58), political stability (58) and public transport (55) are among the lowest in the EU. Residents rate their own lives; a newcomer meets the systems. Bulgaria has the lowest life satisfaction, 6.3, and comes 27th on our score as well.
Best country to move to from the UK in 2026
The table above is for an average reader. To show how far the order moves, we ran four sample answer sets through the scoring engine our quiz uses: two British, one American and one EU citizen.
| Sample mover | Top three, fit out of 100* |
|---|---|
| Retired British couple Not working, net income EUR 2,500-3,500 (£2,100-2,900) a month, savings over EUR 40,000 (£33,400). Wants warmth, the sea, a small town and to get by in English. |
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| British family with children One parent looking for a local job, the partner works, net income EUR 3,500-5,000 (£2,900-4,200) a month. Wants a mild climate, nature and a mid-sized city; healthcare matters a lot. |
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| American remote employee Single, 34, works remotely for a US company, net income EUR 3,500-5,000 ($3,900-5,600) a month. Wants a big city with culture and a social life. |
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| EU citizen moving within the EU Italian, 29, single, looking for a local job, net income EUR 1,500-2,500 a month. Wants a big city and puts career first. |
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*MoveMap estimates from the quiz engine for these sample answers only; main answers shown, and countries tied with third place are all listed. £ and $ at the ECB reference rate of 6 November 2026 (EUR 1 = £0.83415 = $1.1165), rounded to the nearest 100.
The retired British couple asked for warmth, the sea and getting by in English, which lifts Malta (65), Croatia and Cyprus (64) to the top, while Finland drops to joint sixth. The British family lands close to the average order, with Denmark, Estonia and Finland tied at 67, because a family’s answers put weight on healthcare, safety and schools, where the Nordic countries score well in our model, and Estonia makes up the gap with the lowest bureaucracy estimate, which counts for a non-EU family. For more on that case, see the best European countries to raise a family.
For British movers one rule matters more than any score. In the Schengen area, which covers 25 of the 27 EU countries, and in Cyprus, British citizens can visit without a visa for up to 90 days in a 180-day period; to stay longer they must meet that country’s own rules, usually a long-stay visa or residence permit (GOV.UK). Ireland is the exception: under the Common Travel Area, British citizens can move freely, live and work there, and use its healthcare (GOV.UK guidance, updated 1 January 2026). In 2025, EU countries issued 44,446 first residence permits to UK citizens (Eurostat). Our Schengen 90/180 day calculator counts the days, and moving to Europe from the UK covers the routes country by country.
The EU citizen shows what a passport does. With free movement, paperwork and the citizenship clock score the same in every country, so the order follows local pay, housing, lifestyle and language. Finland leads at 71 because its housing is under less pressure than Denmark’s, Luxembourg’s or Sweden’s in our model. EU citizens can move to any EU country to live, work, study, look for a job or retire (Your Europe, checked 3 November 2026); our guide to relocating within the EU goes further.
Best countries to live in Europe as an American
Our sample American, a remote employee, gets Estonia first at 72, then Finland and Latvia at 69. For a non-EU mover the engine weighs paperwork, and Estonia has the lowest bureaucracy estimate in our data (35, where higher means more friction) and the highest remote-work estimate (90). Before you weigh that, read what taxes in Estonia for foreigners look like for a US citizen.
US citizens can visit the Schengen area without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period (EU Regulation 2018/1806). Living there needs a national long-stay visa or residence permit (European Commission), and remote workers can compare the digital nomad visas in Europe. In 2025, EU countries issued 91,615 first residence permits to US citizens, about twice the British figure (Eurostat). See moving to Europe from the US for the routes.
The order for you
Four sample runs gave four different top threes from one engine. What moved them was the passport, which decides whether paperwork counts at all; whether you earn locally or bring a foreign income, which decides whether low prices or local wages matter more; and what you want from daily life, from the sea to schools; our guide to which European country to move to walks through each of these answers. Before you shortlist, check which EU countries fit your budget, read the moving to Europe hub, and see how long the easiest permanent residency in Europe takes if you plan to stay. The quiz’s ranking for your own answers also weighs what this page leaves out, such as tax, climate and the paperwork your passport needs.