How to Choose a Country to Live In or Settle In: A Scoring Framework
Choosing where to build your life is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make. Most people make it on a feeling. A friend moved to Canada, so Canada it is. An uncle is in Australia, so Australia sounds right.
I saw this up close. I recently spent two weeks in Sri Lanka and met a lot of old friends and colleagues, most of them in IT. Almost every one of them wanted to leave. When I asked where, the answer came fast: Australia, Canada, New Zealand. When I asked why that country, the room went quiet. Most could not tell me. They had picked a destination without really choosing it.
That is what this article is about. Not which country is best, because there is no such thing. A country that is perfect for me can be wrong for you. This is a way to work out which one is right for you, on paper, before you commit years of your life to it.
Why I am writing this
Sri Lanka is officially bankrupt. You already know the rest. Runaway inflation, long queues for fuel, hours of power cuts. So a lot of people are trying to get out, some for good, some just for a while.
Someone ran an online survey that collected 6,785 responses. Eighty-eight percent had already migrated or planned to, and more than half were IT professionals. The top choices were Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Those numbers matched what I heard in person. People are desperate to move, and working hard at it. But desperation and a clear head do not always travel together. That is where a framework helps.
I understand not everyone has options. If you do have a few, though, it is worth choosing between them properly. People with an IT background often do, because the skills travel and many countries are actively looking for them. This framework is for anyone with more than one door open, trying to pick the right one.
No country is perfect
Every country is a trade-off. Great weather, high tax. Strong passport, far from home. Cheap housing, fewer jobs in your field. The mistake is to look at one shiny thing — a friend’s photos, a big salary, a nice climate — and decide on that alone. You want to see the whole picture, and weigh each part by how much it actually matters to you.
I will say this plainly: this framework is mine, and the scores I use are mine. Do your own research before a decision this size.
How the framework works
There are two simple steps.
First, score each factor by how much it matters to you, from 1 to 10. Take “friendly climate”. If you are fine in any weather, score it low, maybe a 1 or a 2. If cold, grey winters would genuinely wear you down, score it high, an 8, 9, or 10. This number is about you, not about any country.
Then score each country you are considering on that factor, from 1 to 5. Say staying close to Sri Lanka matters to you, so you gave that factor a 10. Now compare your options. I might give Canada a 2, New Zealand a 3, and Australia a 5 for closeness. Multiply the two numbers together:
- Close to Sri Lanka, Canada: 10 × 2 = 20
- Close to Sri Lanka, New Zealand: 10 × 3 = 30
- Close to Sri Lanka, Australia: 10 × 5 = 50
Do that for every factor, add up each country’s column, and the highest total is your strongest match on paper. If closeness were the only thing you cared about, Australia would win here. Real life has forty of these factors pulling in different directions, which is exactly why adding them up helps.
The factors to score
Here is my full list, grouped so it is easier to think through. Score each one from 1 to 10 by how much it matters to you. If a factor does not apply to you at all, score it zero and move on.
Safety and stability. Safety of the country. Rule of law and trust in the justice system. Political stability. The current economic situation. Freedom of speech, like the right to protest.
Work and money. The chance of finding a job in your field. The average salary for your role. Job security. Low cost of living. Strength of the currency. Low tax rate. Low tax on investments like stocks. How business-friendly it is if you want to start something. House affordability. Affordability of a personal vehicle. Retirement benefits.
Immigration and passport. A clear PR path. How long it takes to become a PR. How easy it is to become a citizen after PR. Whether dual citizenship is allowed. Passport strength. Work rights for your spouse before PR. Easy visit visas for family, like parents and siblings. Whether family members already live there.
Family and daily life. Free education for children. A free public health system. Quality of life. Quality of public transport. High-speed internet. Cleanliness. Digitalisation. Friendly local people. Culture. A native community you can lean on. Religious freedom and friendliness.
Location and lifestyle. Whether it is an English-speaking country. How close it is to home. A friendly climate, close to what you are used to. The neighbouring countries. How easy it is to travel from there.
That is forty factors in total.
A worked example: Singapore vs Germany vs New Zealand
To show how it comes together, here is my own comparison of Singapore, Germany, and New Zealand. Every score below is mine, based on my job in IT, my wife’s work, and what my family wants. Yours will look completely different, and that is exactly the point.
Each country cell shows the importance score multiplied by that country’s 1–5 rating.
| Factor | Importance | Singapore | Germany | New Zealand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safety of the country | 10 | 50 | 30 | 40 |
| Job in your field | 10 | 50 | 40 | 40 |
| English-speaking country | 10 | 50 | 10 | 50 |
| House affordability | 10 | 30 | 30 | 50 |
| Low tax rate | 8 | 40 | 8 | 16 |
| Close to Sri Lanka | 10 | 50 | 30 | 30 |
| …and 34 more factors | ||||
| Total | 1,187 | 994 | 1,164 |
For me, Singapore comes out on top. Not because Singapore is objectively the best country in the world, but because it scores highest against the things I personally weigh most. If you are curious why it works for me day to day, I wrote about that separately in why I like living in Singapore. Change the weights to match your own life and the winner can change completely.
You can see the full sheet, all forty factors with every score, here: open the Google Sheet. Make a copy and it will do the maths for you.
Fill it in yourself
I have turned the framework into a one-page worksheet you can print. Write in the countries you are weighing, give each factor an importance score, rate every country, and add up the columns.
Download the country worksheet (PDF)
If you would rather it calculated everything for you, use the Google Sheet version instead.
One last thing
People’s opinions are naturally biased, mine included. We all defend the choice we have already made. So do not outsource this one. Do not move somewhere just because a friend did, or because a salary looked good in a screenshot. Score it honestly, compare a few options, and choose with your eyes open. A country that is ideal for one person may be wrong for another.
That is it for today. If this helped, please rate this article below, and share it with a friend or family member who is trying to work out where to go next.