United States
Northern America
Overall scoring rubric
How easy it is to get in, stay, and build status.
How far local income goes after prices.
How friendly the country is for taxes, companies, and investing.
How comfortable everyday life is for families and long stays.
How reliable freedoms and institutions are.
Safety (64) clears the 40 floor, so no penalty applies.
Healthcare (84) clears the 40 floor, so no penalty applies.
Environment (96) clears the 35 floor, so no penalty applies.
Rights and institutions (84) clears the 30 floor, so no penalty applies.
The world's deepest job and capital markets, top universities and an EB-5 investor green card, offset by costly healthcare, citizenship-based worldwide taxation and a hard work-visa lottery.
Pros
- Highest salaries & venture capital
- EB-5 investor green card
- World-leading universities
Cons
- Taxed on worldwide income as a citizen
- Expensive healthcare
- H-1B lottery & long green-card queues
Best for
Score profile
Access
Residence
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any residence / visa decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
Our 0–100 score combines international migrant stock (40%), regulatory quality (20%), the breadth of named residence pathways (25%), and time to permanent residence (15%). Available indicators are reweighted.
| Student | F-1 visa; on-campus work + OPT/CPT practical training. |
|---|---|
| Work | H-1B (annual lottery), O-1 for extraordinary ability, L-1 transfers. |
| Self-employed | No simple founder visa; routes via O-1, E-2 treaty investor, or EB-5. |
| Permanent | Green card via employment, family, or EB-5 ($800k+ investment). |
Citizenship
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any citizenship decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
| Years required | 5 years as a green-card holder (3 if married to a US citizen) |
|---|---|
| Dual allowed | true |
| Language | Basic English + US civics/history test |
| Residence | Permanent residence (green card) with continuous physical presence |
| Notes | The US taxes citizens and green-card holders on worldwide income for life; renouncing can trigger an expatriation (exit) tax. |
Passport
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any travel or visa decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
Passport-index style mobility for the United States passport. The score above is its world reach: the share of 198 destinations reachable without a prior visa.
- Visa-free137
- On arrival40
- eTA8
- Visa required13
Passport Index style mobility data (2024–2025 estimate). Placeholder figures; verify current entry rules with each destination’s authority before travelling.
Earning power
Salary & work
Our 0–100 score combines output per worker (a proxy for wage potential at 40%), unemployment (35%) and labour-force participation (25%). Available indicators are reweighted; the curated profile fields remain below.
| Freelance | Vast 1099 contracting market; highest global day rates |
|---|---|
| Job market | Silicon Valley, NYC, Seattle, Austin hubs; visa is the main hurdle. |
Buying power
Our 0–100 score estimates how far money goes for the typical person here. It combines GNI per capita at PPP (30%) and actual household consumption per person at PPP (15%) with a price-advantage term from the local price level (25%) that rewards lower prices, then adjusts for income equality via the Gini index (20%), so unequal economies don't ride a high average, plus price stability via consumer inflation (10%). Available indicators are reweighted; it is a comparison, not a personal budget estimate.
Cost of living
Our 0–100 affordability score is derived from the local consumer price level (World Bank, US = 100): the cheaper everyday prices are, the higher it scores. Lower price level means your money goes further here.
| Rent | $1,800–3,500 (1BR major city) |
|---|---|
| Monthly | $2,500 |
| Cities | New York, San Francisco, Austin, Miami |
Economy
Our 0–100 score combines income level (GDP and GNI per capita, output per worker), growth momentum (real GDP growth), price stability (inflation) and labour utilisation (unemployment). Available indicators are reweighted; the sector split and industry profile below are descriptive, not scored.
| Type | High-income, services- and innovation-led |
|---|---|
| Key sectors | Big Tech & software, Wall Street finance, Healthcare & biotech |
| Summary | The world's largest economy, led by technology, finance and services with deep capital markets. |
| Currency | US dollar (the world's primary reserve currency) |
Business and wealth
Taxes
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any tax decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
| Personal | 10–37% federal, plus 0–13.3% state income tax |
|---|---|
| Corporate | 21% federal + state corporate tax |
| Capital gains | 0/15/20% long-term + 3.8% net investment income tax |
| Dividends | 0/15/20% qualified dividends + NIIT |
| Exit tax | Yes: mark-to-market expatriation tax for covered expatriates |
| Foreign cos | Extensive CFC (Subpart F / GILTI) and PFIC rules |
Personal tax
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any tax decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
| Personal | 10–37% federal, plus 0–13.3% state income tax |
|---|---|
| Freelance | Sole proprietor / LLC; self-employment tax ~15.3% |
| Capital gains | 0/15/20% long-term + 3.8% net investment income tax |
| Dividends | 0/15/20% qualified dividends + NIIT |
| Exit tax | Yes: mark-to-market expatriation tax for covered expatriates |
Corporate tax
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any tax decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
| Corporate | 21% federal + state corporate tax |
|---|---|
| Capital gains | 0/15/20% long-term + 3.8% net investment income tax |
| Dividends | 0/15/20% qualified dividends + NIIT |
| Foreign cos | Extensive CFC (Subpart F / GILTI) and PFIC rules |
Business
Our 0–100 score measures the operating environment without counting tax a second time: company formation and ownership rules contribute 40%, regulatory quality 30%, and government effectiveness 30%. Available indicators are reweighted; the values are shown below.
| Foreign co. | Yes: no nationality limit on owning a US LLC/C-corp |
|---|---|
| Local co. | LLC or C-corp (Delaware popular) online in days |
| Freelance | Sole proprietor / LLC; self-employment tax ~15.3% |
Investment
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any investment / tax decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
Our 0–100 score measures market access without counting tax a second time: broker availability contributes 50%, equity-market depth 30%, and private credit depth 20%. Available indicators are reweighted.
| Capital gains | 0/15/20% long-term; deepest brokerage & ETF ecosystem |
|---|---|
| Dividends | Data not available yet |
| ETFs & funds | Data not available yet |
| Wealth tax | None federally |
| Brokers | Best-in-class: Fidelity, Schwab, Interactive Brokers, Vanguard |
| Foreign access | Data not available yet |
| Tax-advantaged | Data not available yet |
Wealth building
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any tax / investment decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
How favourable United States is for building wealth: earnings and business/investment upside, tax drag, and how much a typical income keeps after living costs. Estimated from the factors below.
Daily life
Safety
Our 0–100 score combines personal safety (intentional homicide rate at 50%), political stability and absence of violence (30%), and control of corruption (20%). Available indicators are reweighted; the published values are shown below. Always check current government travel and security advice before relocating.
Healthcare
Our 0–100 score combines health outcomes (life expectancy at 25% and under-5 mortality at 20%) with system capacity (physicians at 20% and hospital beds at 15% per 1,000 people) and health spending per capita (20%). Available indicators are reweighted; the published values are shown below.
| System | Private, employer-based; no universal coverage |
|---|---|
| Insurance | No mandate; insurance essential (very high out-of-pocket costs) |
| Avg cost | $400–700 / mo individual premium (plus deductibles) |
Environment
Our 0–100 score combines annual population-weighted PM2.5 exposure at 60% with freshwater stress at 40%. Lower exposure and lower water stress score better. Air quality alone can produce a score because it covers most countries; water stress alone cannot.
Infrastructure
The score combines digital access, resilience and download performance (30%), electricity access and network losses (30%), and transport infrastructure covering rail, logistics and aviation (40%). Available inputs are reweighted, but a country needs both digital and transport data to receive a score.
Sources: World Bank World Development Indicators · Internet Society Pulse Internet Resilience Index
Education
Our 0–100 score combines attainment (expected schooling at 30% and mean schooling at 25%) with participation (tertiary enrolment at 25%) and public investment (government education spending at 20%). Available indicators are reweighted; tuition and study rules remain separate profile fields below.
| Tuition | $10,000–60,000 / yr |
|---|---|
| Public uni | In-state public ~$10–12k; out-of-state & private far higher |
| Languages | English |
| Student work | On-campus work; OPT (12 mo, 36 mo STEM) after graduation |
HDI
The UN Human Development Index is the geometric mean of three dimension indices (a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living), shown on a 0–100 map scale (HDI × 100). The 2023 UNDP inputs behind each dimension are listed below.
Rights and institutions
Freedom
The score weights Freedom House’s 0–100 Freedom in the World score at 60% and its Freedom on the Net score at 40%. If either report does not cover a country, the available score is used alone. Scores of 70 and above are rated “Free”, 40–69 “Partly free”, and below 40 “Not free”.
| Freedom in the World | 83 / 100 (Free) |
|---|---|
| Freedom on the Net | 73 / 100 (Free) |
Rule of law
The World Bank’s Rule of Law indicator captures how well contracts are enforced and how independent and effective the courts, police and property-rights regime are. We show its 0–100 percentile rank, where higher means stronger, more predictable institutions.
| Rule of Law percentile | 88 / 100 |
|---|
Resources
Official references and quick links for United States. Always confirm against the primary source before acting.
Rules change often and depend on your situation. Confirm any immigration, tax or legal decision with a qualified professional, or do your own research, before acting.
Mock data for demonstration only. Not legal or tax advice.