Americans move abroad for all kinds of reasons.
Jason Luban and Selena Medlen only work 20 hours a week in Spain, after leaving California in 2016. Alex Evans moved his family from Jacksonville, Florida, to Mukaishima Island, Japan, in 2022, where rent for a three-bedroom house is only $432 a month. Writer Cristina Johnson found a fresh start in Belize, where she was able to build her own home for a fraction of what it would cost in the US.
As 2024 looms, maybe it's time to set a New Year's resolution to try it yourself.
Americans often look overseas to take advantage of a relatively strong dollar and homes that are cheaper to buy or rent compared to some parts of the US. Remote workers, too, are taking flight, becoming "digital nomads" while living in idyllic spots such as Santa Marta, Colombia, and Mal Pas, Costa Rica.
Business Insider has compiled a list of 20 cities where people can live cheaply relative to major US cities, using data from Numbeo, a comparison website that provides crowdsourced summaries of the cost of living in major cities across the world.
Numbeo averages user-submitted expenses, including estimated monthly costs for a single person or a family of four, monthly rent, and the price of buying a home in the city center. It also calculates the typical prices for a coffee, a meal for two, and a gym membership. While Numbeo's methodology relies on users around the world entering their costs accurately, it is a useful tool for cross-city comparison.
All prices have been converted to US dollars, and the cities' populations are sourced from Demographia data unless otherwise noted.
Many of these spots also rank highly on quality of life measures, but it's important to note that lower living costs sometimes come at the expense of other city features like safety, healthcare, and pollution.
We also didn't take into account logistics like work visas. Because hey, we can dream, right?
Read on to learn more about these relatively affordable places, presented alphabetically, including Hanoi, Vietnam and Rio de Janeiro.
Did we miss a hidden gem for expats or digital nomads? Tell us!