Mexico
Mérida
Capital of Yucatán state; widely cited as one of Mexico's safest cities.
Coverage
Destinations
Chosen because the arriving resident personally decides on healthcare, residency and how money crosses a border — not because the beaches photograph well.
Mexico
Mexico City
Mexico's capital and largest city, with a large, well-established international community across multiple neighborhoods (Roma, Condesa, Polanco).
Mexico
Playa del Carmen
Riviera Maya beach town and one of the fastest-growing cities in Mexico; large digital-nomad and younger-expat population alongside traditional retirees.
Mexico
Puerto Vallarta
Pacific coast city with an estimated 10,000-15,000 foreign residents year-round (higher in winter high season), concentrated around Zona Romántica and the Bay of Banderas.
Mexico
San Miguel de Allende
Colonial city of roughly 75,000 residents, of whom an estimated 10,000 are foreign expats — one of the highest expat-to-population ratios of any city in this list.
Thailand
Bangkok
Thailand's capital; large international community with formal, long-established clubs alongside a big digital-nomad and corporate-expat population.
Thailand
Chiang Mai
Northern Thailand's largest city and one of the most mature, organized expat communities in Southeast Asia, with decades of retiree and digital-nomad settlement.
Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam's largest city (also known as Saigon); fast-growing expat and digital-nomad population, though community infrastructure is less formally organized than in longer-established Southeast Asian hubs.
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia's capital; large, multicultural expat community with efficient transit and English widely spoken.
Portugal
Lisbon
Portugal's capital and largest expat hub; popular with young professionals, families, and the tech/startup community. Neighborhoods like Alfama, Príncipe Real, and Parque das Nações see the highest concentration of foreign residents.
Spain
Madrid
Spain's capital; large, well-established international community with multiple long-running formal associations.
Colombia
Medellín
Colombia's second-largest city, known as the 'City of Eternal Spring' for its climate; popular with digital nomads and remote workers, centered on El Poblado and Laureles.
Panama
Panama City
Panama's capital and largest expat hub, alongside the Boquete highlands and the Pacific beach corridor around Coronado. Ranked #1 globally in InterNations' 2026 Expat Insider survey for the third consecutive year.
Malaysia
Penang
Along with Kuala Lumpur, home to one of Malaysia's largest expat populations (both retired and working), centered on Penang Island.
Portugal
Porto
Portugal's second-largest city; UNESCO World Heritage historic center, growing expat community especially among creatives, entrepreneurs, and remote workers.
Mexico
Querétaro
Colonial UNESCO World Heritage city in central Mexico with a smaller, longer-running expat community than Mexico City or the coastal destinations.
Costa Rica
San José
Costa Rica's capital and Central Valley hub; large, long-established expat and retiree community with formal associations dating back decades.
Spain
Valencia
Roughly 15% of Valencia's ~1.6M metro population are foreign nationals (~240,000 people); large, active international community.
Indonesia
Bali — Ubud
Ubud in particular is a globally known digital-nomad and wellness-focused expat hub, alongside a broader Bali-wide expat population concentrated in Seminyak, Canggu, and Sanur.
Argentina
Buenos Aires
Argentina's capital; long-established expat community with formal clubs dating back over a century, alongside active newer digital-nomad and remote-work networks.
Singapore
Singapore
City-state with one of the world's largest and most formally organized expat communities, including several nationality-based clubs over a century old.