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While exciting and filled with opportunity, moving to another country is a daunting prospect at the best of times. A lot of planning is involved, from organising accommodation in advance and adapting to a new language to arranging important financial elements, like international health insurance.
However, if you’re taking a family with you on your international move, there are even more factors to consider. While a move abroad can do wonders for your career or quality of life, ensuring the local environment suits your family setup is essential.
With this in mind, we’ve explored various family-related factors, such as childcare costs, the average annual hours worked and educational attainment in key subjects to determine some of the best places to live abroad with a family as well as those places that could be the most challenging.
Family relocation score:
Portugal takes first place in our ranking with a Family Relocation Score of 6.33, making it the best country to raise a family in the OECD. While the country performed well across the board, it excelled in financial factors. Families in Portugal benefit from affordable childcare, costing 5% of household income on average, and the average monthly cost of essential utilities is very low at $119.
Additionally, property prices in Portugal are very affordable, with an average apartment price per square metre of $266, while the average cost of a flight from London is just $30, making it easy to stay connected with your extended family back home.
Sweden ranks second in our list with a Family Relocation Score of 6.26. The Scandinavian country is an attractive proposition for families, boasting some of the most affordable childcare, averaging 4% of household income, and 10 of the world’s top universities, providing plenty of opportunities for when your children reach adulthood.
Sweden also has one of the lowest average annual hours worked at 1,440.5, meaning you’ll have a better work-life balance than in other countries with more time to spend with your family.
Italy recorded the third-highest Family Relocation Score of 6.22 out of 10. While this warm Mediterranean country is a popular holiday destination, it also holds a lot of opportunities for your children’s futures, with the third-highest number of world-class universities.
Parents in Italy also benefit from having the joint-lowest cost of childcare, easing the pressure on their household finances and making a potential move abroad less stressful.
The United States has the lowest Family Relocation Score in our study at 3.04 out of 10, making it the most challenging country to move to with your family. With the third-most annual hours worked at 1,810.9, meaning a more strained work-life balance, parents might hesitate to relocate to the United States.
While the country does offer a vast number of top-rated universities for your kids to aspire to, the United States is the only country in the OECD not to provide any guaranteed paid parental leave, making it a much more difficult place to expand your family and look after any new arrivals that might come along.
New Zealand finished second from the bottom in our study with a Family Relocation Score of 3.67 out of 10. While the country is a popular destination for many British tourists and expats, moving there with a family could present a few challenges.
Childcare costs in New Zealand are the joint most expensive in the OECD, tied with Switzerland, costing as much as 27% of household income, on average. New Zealand is also the country with the highest cost of a plane ticket from London, meaning children may not be able to spend much time with their extended family as they grow up. The country also has relatively expensive property and rent prices, though it did perform well for child-friendly attractions and low utility costs.
Australia received our study’s third-lowest Family Relocation Score, 3.78 out of 10. The land down under might be many Brits’ idea of paradise, with stunning scenery, beaches and weather, a very friendly population, and a high average level of attainment across mathematics, reading and science. Still, the country falls short in some critical areas for families.
New parents in Australia can only expect to receive a combined 18 weeks of maternity, parental and homecare leave, one of our study’s lowest amounts. Additionally, property prices in Australian cities are some of the most expensive at $728 per square metre, making it difficult to find adequate space to raise a family comfortably.
Having revealed the best countries for moving abroad with your family and the most challenging locations, we can now highlight those that performed best for each factor we analysed.
NET Childcare Costs (% of household income)
Latvia and Italy are the best countries for childcare costs, costing households in both locations 0% of their monthly income, on average. In Italy, many women choose to personally look after their children, eliminating the need for much childcare. This is possible due to the country’s relatively low cost of living, meaning that a household can survive off one salary. Once children in Italy turn three years old, every parent is entitled to 15 or 30 free hours of childcare.
Meanwhile, all children in Latvia are entitled to a place in an ECEC (early childhood education and care) centre from the age of 1.5 years, with participation being compulsory for children aged five and six. This helps to take the pressure off parents’ finances and allows both parents to participate in the workforce.
Rent Price
Hungary has the lowest average rent price in cities, with a monthly cost of $697 for a three-bedroom apartment. Hungary is known for its affordability compared to other European countries, so you could find a much larger living space for your growing family if you choose to settle here.
Apartment Price per Square Metre
Latvia has the best-value city property in our study, with average prices of $199 per square metre. If you want to settle abroad long-term, Latvia could be a great place to put down roots and raise your kids. With such affordable property prices, you’ll be able to provide plenty of space for your partner and kids.
Basic Monthly Utility Cost
Sweden has the lowest average monthly utility cost, at $99. One of the most notable impacts has been on utilities, with energy bills increasing significantly in the UK and many other countries.
Paid Maternity, Parental and Home Care Leave (weeks)
Slovakia offers new parents the most paid time off for maternity, parental, and home care leave, totalling 164 weeks! With this much leave split between parents, families have every opportunity to look after their young children without the full stress and pressure of personal finances and work commitments.
Reading, Science and Mathematics Attainment
Japan has the highest mathematics, reading and science attainment levels across 15 year olds, with an average rating of 515.60, 17.09 points higher than the next-highest-scoring country, Estonia. Providing an excellent education to your children is any parent’s dream, expanding their minds and securing their future.
Average Working Hours
Germany has the lowest average annual working hours at just 1340.9, more than 500 fewer than the highest-scoring country, Greece. Having so few working hours per year gives parents much more time to relax, spend time with their families, or simply take care of all those pesky household tasks.
Child-Friendly Attractions
New Zealand is the best country for child-friendly attractions, totalling 1,833, translating to 35.9 per 100,000 people. With beautiful outdoor scenery and no dangerous wildlife, New Zealand is a fantastic place to explore with your children. The country is also home to many cultural attractions, with the Hobbiton film set from the Lord of the Rings being one of the most famous.
Cost of a One-Way Flight from London
Five countries were tied for the cheapest average flight cost from London, with a one-way ticket costing $30 to France, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. These low flight costs make it especially easy for your kids to have continued regular contact with their friends, grandparents and wider family.
Number of Top Universities
The United States has the highest number of top-rated universities out of all OECD countries, with 97 of the top 500 located in the country. Providing your children with the opportunities to study their passions and build their own successful futures is many parents’ dream, so having so many top educational establishments to choose from is a clear draw benefit.
Many of the most prestigious universities are part of the Ivy League, a group of universities in the Northeastern United States, including the likes of Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Cornell. However, there are top universities nationwide that provide students with fantastic access to some of the best further education available.
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Marketing Director at William Russell
Moving abroad with your family can be a stressful process, with many unknown factors at play. What we’ve seen from this study is that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of which country is best for this move, but some countries do perform significantly better than others overall.
What’s important is to consider how your own personal and familial circumstances match up to the benefits that each country has to offer. This could be the availability of affordable childcare, the quality of schools and education, or the work-life balance offered in your preferred destination.
We used Google Flights to find the cheapest one-way ticket from London to each country. We filtered the results by economy for one person and used the 24th of November as the flight date. Data was collected on 24/01/2024.
We used Numbeo to find the following data for each country: monthly rent for three bedroom apartment in the city centre, monthly rent for three bedroom apartment outside the city centre, cost to buy an apartment in the city centre (per square feet), cost to buy apartment outside the city centre (per square feet), and average price of essential utilities.
We used the OECD to find each country’s average net childcare cost as of 2022. We filtered this data by ‘Couple, average wage’ and ‘% of household income’.
We used Webometrics to find the number of top 500 universities in each country as of the July 2023 edition.
We used the OECD to find the total length of paid maternity, parental and home care leave for each country as of 2022. We also used OECD data to find the attainment levels in science, reading and mathematics among 15-year-olds in each country, taking an average across these subjects.
The annual work hours in each country were also taken from OECD data.
We used Tripadvisor to find the number of attractions in each country listed as “good for kids”. We normalised this against the population of each country using data from the CIA World Factbook for a rate per 100,000 people.
Data was collected between 25/01/2024 and 08/02/2024.
Finally, we used the factors (childcare costs, top universities, maternity and paternity leave, average working hours, child-friendly attractions, educational attainment, cost of a one-way flight, rental price in and out of the city centre, apartment price in and out of the city centre, average utility price). We normalised each factor out of 10 before taking an average of those scores to get an overall score for each country.
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