Latin America
Panama ranks 48th overall out of 59 countries in the Relocate Index, with a composite score of 53.4 out of 100. It scores highest on religious freedom (88) and climate (69), and lowest on school culture (26). Data is unavailable for 1 of the 10 dimensions.
How far money stretches in each country — based on price levels, purchasing power parity (PPP), and out-of-pocket healthcare costs. Uses country-level data, not your personal salary.
When you move abroad, your salary or savings buy different amounts depending on local prices. A country can have high wages but high costs, or moderate wages with remarkable purchasing power. This dimension captures what your money actually buys day-to-day, not just what you earn.
purchasing_power = oecd_ppp_normalised × 0.55 + cost_affordability × 0.30 + (100 − oop_burden) × 0.15
Limitation: Country-level only — no city-level granularity until Numbeo added in V2.
How well institutions work and how safe the streets actually feel — combining governance quality with street-level crime perception.
Rule of law captures two things: institutional quality (do courts work, is corruption controlled?) and street-level reality (do people feel safe walking around?). Some countries have great institutions but rough streets; others have modest governance but feel very safe day-to-day. It does not measure everyday etiquette — queuing, littering, noise norms — because no reliable cross-country data for those behaviours exists.
Reflects waste infrastructure and enforcement capacity, which correlates strongly with national wealth — not a pure measure of citizen behaviour.
What survey respondents expect would happen to a lost wallet found by a stranger — perceived trust, not a measured return rate.
civic_culture = governance × 0.60 + street_safety × 0.40. governance = wgi_rule_of_law × 0.55 + wgi_corruption_control × 0.45. street_safety = 100 − numbeo_crime_index.
Limitation: Governance data is institutional (WGI). Street safety is crowdsourced perception (Numbeo). Neither captures behavioural civicness (queuing, littering, social norms) directly.
Overall peace and security based on conflict risk, political instability, and societal safety.
Safety shapes everything from where you walk at night to whether you feel comfortable letting your children explore independently. This dimension captures country-level peace and security — conflict risk, political stability, and societal safety — not neighbourhood-level crime.
safety = gpi_normalised (inverted, min-max across 1.0–3.5)
Limitation: Single-source — measures country-level peace/conflict (GPI). Street-level crime perception is captured in Rule of Law via Numbeo.
How welcoming and sociable the culture is — combining cultural permissiveness with expat experience.
Cultural warmth determines how quickly you build a social life. Some cultures are genuinely open to newcomers; others are polite but reserved. This dimension blends academic measures of cultural openness with real expat experiences of settling in.
All key sources (Hofstede IVR) are required to produce a comparable score. Available indicators are shown above for reference.
warmth = IVR × 0.40 + internations_score × 0.60. Both sources required — no fallback.
Limitation: InterNations has ~260 respondents per country. Hofstede IVR is static (2010). Countries missing either source show no warmth score. Mismatch flag when abs(IVR − InterNations) > 30.
Academic quality plus student wellbeing — belonging, bullying rates, and school safety.
For families, the school environment is often the deciding factor. This goes beyond test scores to measure whether students feel they belong, whether bullying is common, and whether schools are safe spaces. Academic quality matters, but a child's daily experience matters more.
school_culture = pisa_academic × 0.25 + pisa_belonging × 0.30 + pisa_bullying_inv × 0.30 + pisa_safety × 0.15
Limitation: PISA 2022 is the latest scored edition. PISA 2025 results expected late 2026 or early 2027.
Three-pillar health system score: coverage breadth (UHC), care quality and outcomes (HAQ), and workforce capacity (physicians, beds, nurses). The badge shows what it means for your budget.
The score combines what healthcare services exist (UHC), how good outcomes are (HAQ — amenable mortality across 32 causes), and whether the system has enough doctors, beds, and nurses. The badge tells you what that means financially: public coverage, mandatory insurance, employer-dependent, or budget for private.
A public system exists but most relocating professionals use private healthcare.
healthcare = UHC × 0.35 + HAQ × 0.35 + capacity × 0.30. capacity = physicians_norm × 0.40 + beds_norm × 0.35 + nurses_norm × 0.25.
Limitation: HAQ is from GBD 2019 — next update pending. Capacity data is OECD 2022 for member countries, WHO GHO for others.
Quality of physical and digital infrastructure — transport, energy, communications, technology.
Reliable transport, stable electricity, fast internet, and modern communications infrastructure affect daily life in ways you stop noticing — until they break. This dimension captures the physical and digital backbone that makes a country function smoothly.
infrastructure = imd_infra_score (direct pass-through, already 0–100)
Limitation: IMD uses 300+ indicators per country. Well-validated but only covers ~60 countries.
Temperature, sunshine, and rainfall scored against your preferred weather type. Select your preference during onboarding or adjust in the ranking view.
Climate is personal — there is no objectively best weather. Your preference for warmth, seasons, rainfall, and sunshine drives this score. Unlike other dimensions, climate varies dramatically within large countries; for large countries you can select a specific city — the default is the largest city by population.
climate = 100 − (|avg_temp − ref| × penalty) − rain_penalty − sunshine_penalty. Reference temp and thresholds vary by weather type.
Limitation: For 8 large countries, city-level data is available. For all others, a single representative city is used. Heuristic scoring, not a climate model.
Government restrictions and social hostility toward religious practice.
For people of faith, the ability to practise openly without government restrictions or social hostility is fundamental. This dimension measures both state-level restrictions (laws, regulations) and social-level hostility (harassment, discrimination by neighbours or communities).
religious_freedom = (100 − pew_govt_normalised) × 0.50 + (100 − pew_social_normalised) × 0.50
Limitation: Expert-assessed, not survey-based. Captures state/social level, not neighbourhood level.
Population-level English ability. English-native countries are scored at 10.
For non-native English speakers relocating abroad, the population's English ability determines how easily you can navigate daily life, work, and social connections without learning the local language. A high score means English gets you far; a low score means significant language investment.
english_proficiency = ef_epi_normalised (min-max across 300–700). Native countries hardcoded to 100.
Limitation: EF EPI tests self-selected online test-takers, which skews slightly upward.
Panama ranks 47th out of 59 countries for purchasing power, scoring 39 out of 100. OECD purchasing power parity: 39813.4 (moderate). Price level ratio vs US: 0.52 (affordable). Out-of-pocket health spending: 37.3% of total health expenditure (high burden).
Sources: OECD PPP (AIC) (2023), Price Level Ratio (2023), WHO Out-of-Pocket % (2023)
Panama ranks 51st out of 60 countries for rule of law, scoring 50 out of 100. WGI Rule of Law percentile: 53 (strong). WGI Corruption Control: 36.4 (moderate). Numbeo Crime Index: 42.4 (moderate).
Sources: WGI Rule of Law (2023), WGI Corruption Control (2023), Numbeo Crime Index (2026)
Panama ranks 47th out of 60 countries for safety, scoring 60 out of 100. Global Peace Index: 2.006 (moderate).
Sources: GPI Score (2023)
Panama ranks 56th out of 57 countries for school culture, scoring 26 out of 100. PISA 2022 academic scores: reading 392 (below oecd avg), maths 357 (below oecd avg).
Sources: PISA Reading (2022), PISA Maths (2022), PISA Science (2022)
Panama ranks 50th out of 59 countries for healthcare, scoring 54 out of 100. WHO UHC coverage: 78 (good coverage). HAQ Index: 59.3 (moderate). Physicians: 1.6 per 1,000 (moderate). Hospital beds: 2.2 per 1,000 (moderate). A public system exists but most relocating professionals use private healthcare.
Sources: WHO UHC Coverage (2023), HAQ Index (GBD 2019) (2019), Physicians per 1,000 (2022), Hospital beds per 1,000 (2022), Nurses per 1,000 (2022)
Panama ranks 32nd out of 59 countries for infrastructure, scoring 58 out of 100. IMD Infrastructure Score: 57.5 (moderate).
Sources: IMD Infrastructure Score (2023)
Panama has average annual temperature 27.0 °C, 2100 sunshine hours per year, 200 rain days per year. Summers average 27.5 °C; winters average 26.5 °C.
Sources: Open-Meteo ERA5 (2023)
Panama ranks 7th out of 60 countries for religious freedom, scoring 88 out of 100. Government restrictions on religion: 1.6 out of 10 (low restrictions). Social hostilities toward religion: 0.8 out of 10 (low hostility).
Sources: Pew Govt Restrictions (2023), Pew Social Hostilities (2023)
Panama ranks 43rd out of 55 countries for English proficiency, scoring 36 out of 100. EF English Proficiency Index: 491 (moderate).
Sources: EF EPI Score (2023)
Panama ranks 48th out of 59 countries in the Relocate Index with a composite score of 53.4 out of 100. It scores highest on religious freedom (88) and lowest on school culture (26). The index covers 10 dimensions scored on data from OECD, World Bank, WHO, and other institutional sources.
Panama scores 60 out of 100 for safety in the Relocate Index, ranking 47th out of 60 countries. Its Global Peace Index score is 2.006, rated "moderate". Source: Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Peace Index.
Panama scores 54 out of 100 for healthcare, ranking 50th out of 59 countries. WHO Universal Health Coverage index: 78 (good coverage). A public system exists but most relocating professionals use private healthcare. Sources: WHO, IHME Global Burden of Disease, OECD Health Statistics.
Panama scores 39 out of 100 for purchasing power, ranking 47th out of 59 countries. Its price level ratio relative to the US is 0.52 (affordable). Source: OECD, World Bank.
Warmth data is not available for Panama. This dimension requires both Hofstede IVR and InterNations Ease of Settling In data, and at least one source is missing for this country.
Panama has an average annual temperature of 27.0 °C, summers averaging 27.5 °C and winters 26.5 °C, 2100 sunshine hours per year, 200 rain days per year. Climate data from Open-Meteo ERA5 reanalysis.
Panama scores 26 out of 100 for school culture, ranking 56th out of 57 countries. PISA 2022 scores: reading 392, maths 357. Source: OECD PISA 2022.
Panama scores 36 out of 100 for English proficiency, ranking 43rd out of 55 countries. EF English Proficiency Index score: 491, rated "moderate". Source: EF Education First, EF EPI.
Relocate Index