Two UK cities are officially the cheapest in the world for expats

Life’s too short to stay in one city forever. If you’re getting itchy feet, you may even have considered packing up and moving to an entirely different country. Obviously, it’s a very romantic idea, but if you’re thinking seriously about it, you’ve got to think about all the sensible stuff too. And arguably the most important consideration of all is how much your new life is gonna cost you. 

To help you decide on your next destination, expat tax services company Greenback analysed data from Trading Economics and Expatistan to figure out the cost of living across 43 major cities around the world. And even though more and more people are moving out of the UK thanks to rising prices, two British cities were actually among the planet’s most affordable. 

Ranking in sixth place between Bangkok and Istanbul was Glasgow, where the estimated monthly cost for one person is apparently $1,989 (£1,554.04). We certainly wouldn’t complain about living there – Glasgow is supposedly the best place in the world for live music and we at Time Out ranked it among our favourite cities on the globe for 2024.

Glasgow is also full of good food and happy people — in Time Out’s annual survey, the Scottish city scored an impressive 92 percent for both happiness and its food quality. 

The other British city to make an appearance was Birmingham, which was named the tenth cheapest city for expats. Greenback calculated that the average monthly cost of living in Brum was around $2,255 (£1761.03) for an individual. 

Surprise, surprise, though – London came out as the third most expensive city for expats, at an eye-watering monthly cost of living of £4,290 for one person. It came just below San Francisco and Singapore. 

Cities with the lowest cost of living for expats, according to Greenback

1. Cape Town, South Africa
2. Denpasar, Indonesia
3. Athens, Greece
4. Mexico City, Mexico
5. Bangkok, Thailand
6. Glasgow, UK
7. Istanbul, Türkiye
8. Lisbon, Portugal
9. Barcelona, Spain
10. Birmingham, UK

You can read more about the non-UK cities here. And if you’d like to weigh that up against another expat league table, check out this list of the world’s best (and worst) cities to move to.