This Relocation Calculator Tells You What It Costs to Move Abroad

As someone who, on more than one occasion, has considered a move of the international variety, I can confirm that the biggest deterrent to doing so is unequivocally the cost. Which is why I was floored upon discovering that I could potentially move to Australia for less than what it costs for me to breathe in Jersey City, where I currently reside, for a month. That’s thanks to a new tool that determines the cost of relocating to another country.

According to a report from Travel + Leisure, expat insurance company William Russell has launched a Relocation Calculator that helps both Americans and Brits figure out the average monthly cost of living in more than 30 countries.

“There are many costs associated with moving abroad, such as flights, shipping your belongings and arranging appropriate international health insurance,” William Russell says on the site. “On top of this, you’ll be living in another part of the world with its own housing and labour markets which, in addition to the cost of living, will affect the amount of money you’ll have available each month.”

With that in mind, William Russell looked at the cost of moving to each OECD country, as well as the monthly cost of living there. For each individual country, data from Numbeo was used to determine the cost of living and the cost of rent for a one bedroom apartment in the city center. They also used OECD data for average wages in each country to calculate how affordable it is to live in said country.

For the costs of moving, they used data from MyUS.com for the cost of shipping a 25 kg parcel from one country to another, while they used data from Skyscanner for the cost of a plane ticket to each destination. All UK flights were calculated as departing from London Heathrow, while flights from the United States were calculated using either JFK Airport or Los Angeles International, depending on what was cheaper.

All of that said, it should come as a surprise to none that Canada and Mexico made for the cheapest moves from the United States, but Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and Luxembourg also proved pretty feasible. The most expensive country to relocate to is New Zealand, though it’s worth noting that the costs outlined by William Russell are still less than first and last month’s rent, on top of movers, for an apartment in, say, Park Slope, even if you already live in Brooklyn. Just some food for thought!