Best Countries for Expats: An Honest Ranking From 11 Years Across Seven of Them

The short answer: the best countries for expats, ranked from actually living in them, are Thailand (best all-around base), Vietnam (very cheap), China (highest teaching pay), and the Philippines (easiest for English speakers), with Bali, Japan, and South Korea close behind. If you want the best Asian countries for American expats specifically, the top three are Thailand, Vietnam, and China.

But one thing up front, because it changes everything: the "best" country isn't the prettiest beach or the cheapest beer. It's the one where you can get income flowing fastest and live well on it. Keep that in mind as you read.

What Actually Makes a Country Good for Expats

Forget the travel-influencer checklist and the generic "best places to live abroad" listicles. Here's what actually matters for expat life when you're living somewhere, not vacationing. This is about moving abroad for real: building a life around low cost, income, and the kind of expat communities that make the landing soft.

• Cost of living vs your income. Cheap is only cheap if you've got dollars coming in. $25 an hour online feels like $80 an hour when your rent is $300. (This is why a US six-figure salary stretches so much further abroad.)
• How fast you can earn there. For most guys that means English teaching, the fastest way for an American to get overseas with money coming in.
• Lifestyle fit. Food, people, pace, dating, safety. The stuff you actually live in day to day.
• Ease of landing. Visa situation, English spoken, how hard the cultural adjustment is.

Now the countries, ranked the way I'd actually tell a friend.

1. Thailand: the Best All-Around Base

Thailand is where I'm based, and it's where I send most guys first. It's cheap, the food is incredible, the beaches are real, and the people are some of the chillest on earth. The cost of living is low enough that a modest income goes a long way, and there's a huge, established expat scene so you're not figuring it out alone.

The one rule that runs the whole country: as long as you bring in the cash, you're good. Show up with income and Thailand treats you well. Show up broke and it'll chew you up like anywhere else. If you want the full breakdown, I wrote a whole guide on moving to Thailand and one on living in Thailand, plus a head-to-head with its closest rival in Philippines vs Thailand. And the cost of living in Thailand is the number that makes it all work.

Best for: almost everyone, especially first-timers.

2. Vietnam: One of the Cheap Southeast Asia Plays

Vietnam is one I tell budget-focused guys to look at. It sits in the same cheap Southeast Asia tier as Thailand and Cambodia, the kind of place where if you're bringing in around a thousand dollars a month, you can live well. It's gotten really popular with English teachers lately, part of the same wave of guys teaching all over the region.

If you want your dollars to stretch and you're open to somewhere outside the usual Thailand default, it's worth a hard look.

Best for: guys who want maximum dollar stretch in cheap Southeast Asia.

3. China: the Most Underrated, and It Pays the Most

People sleep on China, and I get why, the headlines scare them. But I lived there for almost 10 years and it gave me freedoms I never had in the States. Foreigner benefits are real. I could reinvent myself, skip the 9-to-5 for over a decade, and I genuinely felt safe moving around. And here's the part nobody mentions: English teaching in China pays more than most of Asia.

China also gives Americans a 10-year visa, which makes staying long-term easy, and it's the one country out here where I consistently see foreigners actually running businesses and making good money. It's not easy to do business there, but it's possible if you play your cards right, more open to foreigners than Japan or South Korea.

It's not for everyone, and I eventually moved on to Thailand. But if your top priority is stacking the most teaching income, China is the quiet heavyweight. I broke down a decade there in what it's like to live in China and the money side in cost of living in China.

Best for: guys prioritizing income, who can handle a bigger cultural gap.

4. The Philippines: the Easy-Mode Landing for English Speakers

The Philippines is the softest landing if you don't want a hard cultural adjustment. English is everywhere, so you can function from day one. There's a real "American bubble" you can live inside, big-city nightlife full of foreigners, familiar food if you want it. The local food has a weak reputation (it's salty and sour, you'll probably eat foreign most of the time), but the ease of communication is a huge plus. Staying long-term is easy too, Americans renew tourist visas there for years.

One honest catch, and it matters because income is the whole game: the Philippines is easy to live in but one of the weaker places to earn. English teaching barely pays there because everyone already speaks English, and the internet can be spotty enough to make remote work a headache (budget for backup wifi).

So I'd file it as a great place to live once your money's sorted, not the place to build the income in the first place. If you want a business angle, opening a foreign bar or restaurant that serves the expat crowd can work, since locals tend not to have much to spend on luxuries.

Best for: guys who want an easy, English-speaking landing and already have income handled.

5. Indonesia (Bali): the Digital-Nomad Hub

Bali is where the remote workers and digital nomads are migrating, and I've watched plenty of people ditch Thailand for it. It's beautiful, it's set up for laptop income, and the nomad infrastructure is everywhere. Fair warning from my own trip: it's heavily Western, you'll be surrounded by the yoga-and-smoothie crowd more than locals. If you want an authentic-Asia immersion, that's a minus. If you want a plug-and-play nomad base, it's a plus.

Best for: remote workers who want a ready-made nomad community.

6. Japan and South Korea: Higher Cost, "Hard Mode," but the Pay Is Real

I'll be honest, these two are tougher. Higher cost of living, harder dating, a steeper culture and language barrier. I call Japan "hard mode" for expat men for a reason. But the teaching pay is strong, the quality of life is high, and for the right guy they're incredible. Just go in knowing your money won't stretch the way it does in Thailand or Vietnam.

Best for: higher earners who want first-world polish over dollar arbitrage.

So What Are the Best Countries for Expats, Really?

Here's the truth that ties it together: the best country for you is the one where you can get income going the fastest, then live well on it. That's the whole game. Earn in dollars, spend in a cheaper currency, and the gap buys your freedom.

It's not a get-rich-quick thing. It's a get-free-slowly-but-surely thing. And for almost every guy I talk to, the bridge that makes any of these countries possible is English teaching, because it gets you on the ground with money coming in instead of burning savings while you "figure it out." Never moved abroad before? Start with how to move to another country.

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