How we rank countries

The method in short

Each decision tab scores a country from 0 to 10. Every component is converted to a 0 to 1 value, multiplied by its weight, and averaged over the weights that have data. The result is multiplied by ten. Components where a lower number is better, such as tax rates and monthly costs, are inverted before scoring.

The inclusion tab works differently. It ranks directly on a 0 to 100 legal protection score, with no 0 to 10 conversion and no winsorizing, because the published indices already share a scale. Countries that are decriminalized but score below 40 are listed separately and are not ranked. Public attitudes and women's inclusion are reported beside the rank and never enter it.

Before normalization, each component is winsorized at the 5th and 95th percentiles across the eligible countries. That stops one outlier from flattening everyone else. A country at or above the 95th percentile reaches the top of that component, which is why several countries can share a 10.0 on a tab.

A country is eligible for a tab only when every required component exists and the components with data cover at least 70 percent of the total weight. Ineligible countries are left out of the ranking, not placed last. Ties break on the overall score, then on the country name.

Travel advisories act as a gate. The tabs that decide where to live, retire, digital nomads, best value, families and easiest residency, drop any country at advisory level 3 or 4. Low tax, healthcare and climate compare published numbers, so only a level 4 (do not travel) advisory removes a country there. A country with no advisory on record is not excluded. The inclusion tab does not use advisories as a gate. It ranks published legal indices, and countries that criminalize same-sex relations are listed separately rather than scored.

How the LGBTQ+ legal protection ranking is built

• Only LGBTQ+ legal protection drives the rank. Attitudes and women's inclusion are displayed as separate scores and never enter the rank.
• The legal score averages only the indices that exist: Equaldex Legal, the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map where it covers the country, and the Spartacus Gay Travel Index. The Spartacus rank is converted to a 0 to 100 value and carries half the weight of the other two. A missing index is left out, never counted as zero.
• A country needs at least two of those inputs. With fewer than two, the legal score is left empty and the country is not ranked, even if its status is known.
• Countries with an unknown legal status are not shown. Countries that criminalize same-sex relations are not ranked; they appear in a separate list below the ranking, with jurisdictions where capital punishment is possible marked.
• Countries that are decriminalized but score below 40 are listed separately under "Decriminalized, but limited legal protection". They are not ranked, because decriminalization is not the same as legal protection.
• Public attitudes come from the Equaldex Public Opinion Index. When the publisher says the figure rests on fewer than three surveys, the card carries a marker.
• Women's inclusion is the Women, Peace and Security Index scaled from 0 to 1 to 0 to 100. The scores are marked unverified because they were not independently confirmed against the publisher's own table.

Where the numbers come from

• Cost of living, healthcare, safety, quality of life, pollution and purchasing power: published Numbeo country indices.
• Internet speed: the Speedtest Global Index fixed-broadband median, not mobile.
• Visa income thresholds, tax rates, residency and citizenship paths: the country record, sourced from government publications.
• Rent, groceries and school fees: published survey figures, shown as estimates in US dollars.
• Visa income thresholds in local currency are converted at one exchange-rate snapshot. The date of that snapshot is shown above.
• Inclusion: the Equaldex Legal and Public Opinion indices, the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, the Spartacus Gay Travel Index, and Georgetown's Women, Peace and Security Index, with the edition year and retrieval date shown on the ranking.

What this cannot tell you

• Four countries are not scored anywhere: Antigua and Barbuda, Burkina Faso, Togo and Northern Cyprus. Numbeo publishes no cost of living or quality of life index for them, so they cannot reach the completeness gate. Their published values still appear on their country pages.
• Indices such as healthcare and safety are perception measures from survey responses, not audits. A strong national system can still be thin in a rural area.
• Figures are country averages. City pages carry city-level numbers, and those can differ sharply from the national figure.
• A high score is not advice. Visa rules, tax residence and healthcare eligibility depend on your nationality, income and family, and they change.
• Inclusion figures describe national law and published survey results, not the safety of a specific city or the experience of every resident. Attitudes vary inside every country, and laws can change before the next index edition.