Explore 185 of the most livable cities in the world, ranked by the weather all year, safety and internet, for people who can live anywhere.
The most livable places for people who work online, ranked by the weather all year, safety and the internet.
United StatesThe places
Spain
Portugal
France
Malta
Brazil
Australia
New Zealand
Barbados
Chile
Mexico
Uruguay
Cyprus
Denmark
South Korea
Panama
Taiwan
Canada
How it sorts: each thing you pick scores every place from 0 to 1 for your month (warm: afternoons from 64°F (18°C) up; mild: close to 75°F (24°C); dry: under 7 inches (180 mm) of rain; cheap stay: where its Inside Airbnb median night ranks among these places; clean air: its PM2.5 that month, full at the WHO's guideline of 5 µg/m³ and empty at 35; fast internet: where it ranks in M-Lab's tests; safe: the US travel advice level, with Levels 1 and 2 both counting as everyday travel; easy visa: your passport's entry rule for the country, best for 90 days or more visa-free; shares my work hours: how many hours of a 9 to 5 in your time zone overlap a 9 to 5 there), and the places sort by the average. With nothing picked, it's the best places for your month: mild, dry and safe. The US has no State Department advisory of its own, so it counts as everyday travel. On each card, the bars show the same scores: green is good, amber is middling, red is weak, and an empty bar means no data yet.
Weather: NOAA station summaries, IDEAM for Medellín, NASA POWER elsewhere. Internet: M-Lab's open speed tests within 25 km of each place over the last 12 months, each user counted once a day (read in BigQuery; a place needs 1,000 tests from 100 users, else the tests within 60 km, else the country's figure, and says which). Safety: the US State Department's advisories, read 2026-09-29. Cost of living: one person's month, with rent from the lower quarter of Inside Airbnb's month-long whole homes (June 2026, CC BY 4.0) where it covers the city and estimated from the country's housing prices elsewhere, and the rest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 spending survey at the country's prices (World Bank ICP 2021, CC BY 4.0). Stay cost: Inside Airbnb's median night for a whole place. Air: fine particles (PM2.5) from OpenAQ's open air quality data, the nearest 3 government monitors within 25 km (else low-cost sensors) whose data license allows commercial use, each month's average since 2023, credited on each place's page; where no station is within 25 km, an estimate from Copernicus's CAMS global reanalysis (monthly PM2.5, 2023 to 2025, CC BY 4.0), adjusted to the stations, and labeled as one. Visas: your passport's rules from the data behind the visa-free countries map. Videos and photos from Pexels, Coverr and Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place. Music from Coverr.
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Which cities are best to live in if your work is online? This free finder ranks 185 cities and islands by what shapes a day there: the weather all year, safety and the internet.
In this guide, I'll show you:
- What makes a city livable for remote work
- The 20 most livable places, with their weather, internet and prices
- The most livable places in each region
- How livability is scored
Open any place for its full guide.
TL;DRKey takeaways
What is a livable city?
A livable city is one where everyday life is easy and pleasant. For someone who works online, that comes down to weather you can enjoy most of the year, feeling safe, and internet that keeps up.
The well-known liveability indexes rank cities for residents with local jobs, schools and healthcare. This one ranks them for people who can live anywhere.
Who is the most livable cities finder for?
It's for anyone choosing a longer-term base:
- Digital nomad visa finder – remote workers who want to stay a year or more
- 183-day rule calculator – anyone whose stay could change their tax residency
- Territorial tax map – people comparing how countries tax income from abroad
- Digital nomad locations – nomads comparing places by their own picks
A place you'll live in for months needs the paperwork sorted as much as the weather.
The 20 most livable places
Here are the places that score highest, among those whose US travel advice is Level 1 or 2:
- Mild, dry months
- 12 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 119 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 100% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 11 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 107 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 100% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 10 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 91 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 64% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 12 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 91 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 60% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 8 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 122 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 64% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 8 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 92 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 64% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 5 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 148 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 77% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 6 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 94 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 60% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 12 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 52 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 64% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 4 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 92 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 66% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 0 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 92 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 46% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 5 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 113 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 100% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 5 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 115 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 100% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 5 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 113 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 64% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 7 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 87 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 90% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 5 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 157 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 100% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 7 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 88 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 64% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 7 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 94 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 86% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 6 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 90 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 64% of US prices
- Mild, dry months
- 8 of 12
- Internet (M-Lab)
- 83 Mbps
- Everyday prices
- 110% of US prices
A mild, dry month has an average afternoon from 64 to 84°F (18 to 29°C) and under 3.5 inches (90 mm) of rain.
The most livable places in each region
Here are the top three in each region, by the same score:
- Europe – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Funchal, Madeira, Tarifa
- Asia – Busan, Taipei, Kyoto
- Latin America – Florianópolis, Bridgetown, Barbados, São Paulo
- North America – San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco
- Africa – Grand Baie, Mauritius, Cape Town, Taghazout
- Oceania – Gold Coast, Auckland, Sydney
Pick a region in the finder, sort by most livable, and every place there lines up.
How livability is scored
Each place gets a score from 0 to 1, from three parts:
- Weather all year (40%) – each month's closeness to 75°F (24°C) afternoons and how dry it is, averaged over 12 months
- Safety (30%) – the US travel advice, with Levels 1 and 2 both counting as everyday travel
- Internet (30%) – where the place ranks in M-Lab's speed tests among these places
A place without an internet figure counts as the middle for that part. Cost isn't in the score; the best value sort adds it.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure comes from an open source, and each place's page names its own:
- Weather – NOAA's monthly station summaries where a station is close, IDEAM's normals for Medellín, and NASA POWER's climate averages elsewhere
- Internet – M-Lab's open speed tests within 25 km of each place over the last 12 months
- Everyday prices – the World Bank's price level for the country, where 100% means US prices
- Safety – the US State Department's travel advisory level, with Levels 1 and 2 both counting as everyday travel
- Air – fine particles (PM2.5) from OpenAQ's open air quality data, the stations within 25 km whose license allows commercial use, each month's average since 2023
The videos and photos come from Pexels, Coverr, Pixabay and Wikimedia Commons, each credited on its place.
More ways to find your next place
These tools use the same places and data, each for a different question:
- Digital nomad locations – every place, with your own picks for the month
- Climate finder – where the weather is right in any month
- Best places to travel right now – this month's best places
- Fastest internet cities – the places ranked by M-Lab's speed tests
- Cleanest air cities – the places ranked by the fine particles in their air
- Best value cities – the most livable places for what life costs
- Random travel destination generator – one place, picked for you
- Visa-free countries – how long your passport lets you stay
- Internet speed test – your own line, on the same M-Lab test
Every place links to its own guide, with the weather by month, the internet and the visa, tax and money tools for its country.
Most livable cities FAQs
Questions about it? Here's what to know.
For people who work online, San Diego scores highest of these 185 places.
The score counts the weather all year, safety and internet.
By this ranking, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Funchal and Tarifa lead.
The finder ranks every place the same way.
Most rankings score cities for residents, with schools, hospitals and local jobs.
This one scores what matters when your work comes with you: weather, safety and internet.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Funchal, Tarifa and Alicante score highest in Europe.
Pick Europe in the finder for the rest.
Florianópolis, Bridgetown, São Paulo and Valparaíso score highest in Latin America.
Pick Latin America in the finder for the rest.
No, the livability score leaves cost out.
Sort by best value to weigh in everyday prices.
I did. I'm Navid Moazzez, and the most livable cities finder is one of my free tools on navid.me.
Read about me, or see my creator profile.
Navid Moazzez
AI business strategist & AI OS builder
Navid Moazzez helps creators and founders master AI and build their own AI Operating System (AI OS) to automate their business and life.
Navid.me is reader-supported. When you buy through links on this site, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
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