Nostos: digital nomad city dataset 2026
1,500 digital-nomad cities with cost of living, safety, healthcare, internet speed, visa rules, airport connectivity, climate normals, air quality and quality-of-life indicators. Every value carries its source, as-of date and whether it is city-, country- or editorial-level.
Download nomad-cities-2026.json (15,138 KB, 1,501 cities) · version 2026.11.3, published 2026-11-10
License: CC BY 4.0 for the compilation; each field keeps its source license (table below). Cite as: Nostos (Navoy), nomad-cities-2026. https://nostos.navoy.io/data/nomad-cities-2026.json
curl -s https://nostos.navoy.io/data/nomad-cities-2026.json | jq '.cities[] | select(.slug=="lisbon") | .scores'
SHA-256 of the city records: 6b9a3fc8fa6153cf7037812e1c33d98cc388cf19150b990595d241206373d1e7
Fields
| Field | Description | Unit |
|---|---|---|
slug, name, country, region, lat, lng, timezone, currency | Identity and location | — |
population | City-proper population | people |
metrics.cost.monthlyTotalUsd | Monthly cost for one person (city-level where available, else country estimate) | USD/month |
metrics.cost.rent1brUsd | Central one-bedroom rent | USD/month |
metrics.cost.rentOutskirts1brUsd | One-bedroom rent outside the centre (the rent the monthly budget assumes) | USD/month |
metrics.cost.countryCostIndex | Country cost index, US = 100 | index |
metrics.safety.homicideRate | Intentional homicide rate (country) | per 100k/year |
metrics.safety.politicalStability | World Bank WGI political stability score (country) | 0–100 |
metrics.healthcare.uhcIndex | WHO UHC service coverage index (country) | 0–100 |
metrics.healthcare.lifeExpectancy | Life expectancy at birth (country) | years |
metrics.internet.downloadMbps / uploadMbps / sampleCount | M-Lab NDT median measured throughput and test count (city; province or country aggregate, level country, where the city has too few tests) | Mbps, tests |
metrics.internet.starlink | Starlink residential service in the country from Starlink's availability map: available, coming_soon (with Starlink's note), not_available or unknown; not part of any score | status |
editorial.intro | Hand-written introduction for the most searched cities (30 as of 2026.09.9): three paragraphs of opinion by the Navoy team, plain text | text |
metrics.food.restaurants3km | OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre: a density signal that depends on map coverage; not part of the score | restaurants |
metrics.visa.nomadVisa | Digital nomad visa: exists, name, income threshold, leads to permanent residence. Where a Nostos visa guide exists for the country, these values come from it and `guide` names the slug of /visas/<guide>; otherwise from WhereToEmigrate | USD/month |
metrics.visa.visaFreeDays.{us,eu,uk} | Visa-free days per visit for US, German and British passports; 0 = visa/e-visa/eTA/VOA required, 365 = unlimited. All 199 passports: GET /visa/<ISO2> | days |
metrics.visa.entryKind.{us,eu,uk} | Entry rule behind each visaFreeDays value: home, free, eta, voa (visa on arrival), evisa, required (consular visa) or none (not admitted) | category |
metrics.mobility.destinations / airports | Distinct non-stop destination airports from the listed airports | airports |
metrics.mobility.internationalDestinations | Distinct nonstop destinations in other countries across the city's airports | airports |
metrics.mobility.airportDetails[] | Per airport: IATA code, name, nonstop destinations, international destinations and US airports with a nonstop link (Wikipedia airport pages; OpenFlights snapshot where no article exists) | airports |
metrics.mobility.usNonstopAirports | Distinct US airports with a non-stop route to the city (Wikipedia airport pages; OpenFlights snapshot where no article exists) | US airports |
metrics.mobility.walkability / transit | Editorial ratings | 1–5 |
metrics.climate.monthly[12] | Mean temperature, precipitation and relative humidity per month (2001–2020 normals) | °C, mm, % |
metrics.air.pm25 | Annual mean PM2.5 | µg/m³ |
metrics.qualityOfLife.hdi / efEpiBand | Human Development Index (country) and EF English proficiency band | 0–1, band |
scores.factors.* | Factor scores computed by the published methodology | 0–100 |
scores.balanced | Composite score under equal weights | 0–100 |
Every metric object has value, unit, sourceId, asOf and level (city, country or editorial); null values carry a nullReason.
Sources and licenses
| Source | Publisher | Coverage | License | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of Living Global 2026 (city rows) monthly_cost_single_eur and rent_1br_center_eur, converted to USD at the ECB reference rate on the retrieval date (see ecb-frankfurter). | WhereToEmigrate | city | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| 2026 Cost of Living Index (country level) Country-level monthly estimate used only where no city-level figure exists; cost_index kept for every city. | WhereNext | country | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| Digital Nomad Visas 2026 Programme name, minimum monthly income (EUR, converted to USD) and whether it leads to permanent residence. Values are directional; verify with the issuing government. | WhereToEmigrate | country | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| ECB euro reference rates via Frankfurter Used only to convert EUR figures from WhereToEmigrate to USD. | European Central Bank / frankfurter.app | country | Public (ECB reference rates) | 2026-09-22 |
| Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100) | World Bank | country | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| Estimates of rates of homicides per 100 000 population WHO GHO modelled estimate, used only where UNODC has no national figure from 2018 or later (seven countries in this dataset). May be reused with attribution under WHO's data policy. | World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory | country | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy) | 2026-09-22 |
| Victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population (national data, latest year) Police- or statistics-office-recorded rates reported to UNODC's crime-trends survey, latest year per country (2024 for most), both sexes, all ages; the United Kingdom uses England and Wales. Replaces the WHO modelled estimate wherever UNODC has a figure from 2018 or later; WHO's 2021 estimates ran several times above recorded figures for El Salvador and Honduras. Workbook data_cts_intentional_homicide.xlsx (July 2026) reduced by scripts/build-dataset/inputs/convert-unodc-homicide.py. | United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, dataUNODC | country | UNODC data, free to reuse with attribution | 2026-10-12 |
| UHC service coverage index | World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory | country | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy) | 2026-09-22 |
| Life expectancy at birth (years), both sexes | World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory | country | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy) | 2026-09-22 |
| M-Lab NDT statistics (city aggregates, 2024) Median of daily median download/upload throughput over 2024 for the city aggregate; sample count is the number of tests. Speeds reflect user-initiated tests, not advertised plans. | Measurement Lab | city | CC0 1.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| OpenFlights airports and routes Count of distinct destination airports (domestic and international) served non-stop from the city's listed airports. The routes table is a 2014 snapshot; treat as an indicator of hub size, not current schedules. | OpenFlights.org | city | ODbL 1.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| Airport destinations (Wikipedia airline and destination tables) Distinct destination airports listed in each airport article's passenger table, resolved through Wikidata. Seasonal routes count; charters and routes announced but not yet flying are excluded. The as-of date is the newest article revision among the city's airports. Falls back to the OpenFlights snapshot when an airport has no article or table. | Wikipedia contributors; countries via Wikidata | city | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 2026-09-24 |
| NASA POWER climatology (2001–2020 monthly means) T2M, PRECTOTCORR and RH2M at the city coordinates (0.5° grid). Monthly precipitation = mm/day × days in month. | NASA Langley Research Center | city | Public domain (US Government) | 2026-09-22 |
| WHO Ambient Air Quality Database, June 2026 update (V8) Annual mean PM2.5 for the most recent year available for the city. | World Health Organization | city | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy) | 2026-09-22 |
| SatPM2.5 satellite-derived annual PM2.5 (V6.GL.02.04) Annual 2023 PM2.5 for the 0.1° grid cell at the city centre, from satellite aerosol retrievals combined with a chemical transport model and ground monitors. Used only for cities with no WHO database row. Where the same country has WHO-measured cities, values are scaled by the median measured/satellite ratio there (corrects desert-dust overestimates in the Gulf). Across 811 cities with both, log-correlation with WHO values is 0.89 and the median difference 2 µg/m³. | Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, Washington University in St. Louis | city | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-07 |
| Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023) | United Nations Development Programme | country | CC BY 3.0 IGO | 2026-09-22 |
| EF English Proficiency Index 2024 (band) Only the proficiency band is stored, transcribed by hand from the public ranking. | EF Education First | country | Proprietary; band cited as a fact with attribution | 2026-09-22 |
| Walkability and transit ratings (editorial) Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology. | Navoy | editorial | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| City population (latest census or official estimate) City-proper figures; the per-city source URL is stored with the seed row. | Wikipedia (citing national statistics offices) | city | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| Editorial copy (tagline, summary, known-for) | Navoy | editorial | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| Life expectancy at birth, total (years), World Development Indicators WHO GHO has no rows for the Faroe Islands or Greenland; the World Bank series covers both territories. | World Bank | country | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-11-05 |
| Life expectancy at birth, Taiwan (Ministry of the Interior) Taiwan is not covered by WHO GHO; figure transcribed from the MOI abridged life table. | Taiwan Ministry of the Interior, Department of Statistics | country | Open Government Data License, Taiwan | 2026-09-22 |
| Intentional homicide rate, Taiwan (National Police Agency via Wikipedia) Taiwan is not covered by WHO GHO. | Wikipedia, citing Taiwan National Police Agency | country | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| Human Development Index, Taiwan (DGBAS calculation) UNDP does not publish an HDI for Taiwan; DGBAS applies the same method. | Taiwan Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics | country | Open Government Data License, Taiwan | 2026-09-22 |
| Annual mean PM2.5, Taipei (Taiwan Ministry of Environment) Taiwan is not in the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database. | Taiwan Ministry of Environment | city | Open Government Data License, Taiwan | 2026-09-22 |
| Passport Index dataset (visa requirements, 199 passports × 199 destinations) Days per visit where stated; 'visa free' without a limit is credited as unlimited; eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa and visa required are credited 0 days for scoring but shown by kind. The default US/EU/UK figures use the US, German and British passports. | Ilya Ilyankou (compiled from passportindex.org) | country | MIT | 2026-09-22 |
| Official entry rules that changed after the Passport Index snapshot Each row of data/manual/entry-corrections.csv names the destination, the passports it applies to, the new rule, the date and the official page it comes from. The build applies these rows on top of the Passport Index snapshot; the corrections are also listed in data/visa-matrix.json. | National governments (immigration authorities, foreign ministries, embassies), compiled by Navoy | country | Facts from public government pages | 2026-10-07 |
| Life expectancy at birth, Hong Kong (Census and Statistics Department) Hong Kong is not a WHO member state; average of male and female expectancy. | Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department | country | Open data (data.gov.hk) | 2026-09-22 |
| Intentional homicide rate, Hong Kong (Police via Wikipedia) | Wikipedia, citing Hong Kong Police Force | country | CC BY-SA 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| IQAir city air-quality pages (yearly PM2.5 averages) Used only where the WHO database has no row for the city. Year is stored per value; some cities only publish older annual averages. | IQAir | city | Proprietary; single annual figure cited as a fact with attribution | 2026-09-22 |
| 2024 Annual Air Quality Review (EPD monitoring data) | Clean Air Network, Hong Kong | city | Cited as a fact with attribution | 2026-09-22 |
| Tirana PM2.5 annual levels 2023–2024 (monitoring reports as reported) Secondary source; replace with the National Environment Agency annual report when available. | CNA.al, citing air-quality monitoring reports | city | Cited as a fact with attribution | 2026-09-22 |
| Monitoring and Dispersion Modelling of PM2.5 in Rwanda (2019–2024) Midpoint of the study's reported annual-mean range. | Aerosol Science and Engineering (Springer) | city | Cited as a fact with attribution | 2026-09-22 |
| WhereNext city cost estimates 2026 (city pages) The '~$X/mo' single-person estimate published on each city page (the API only exposes countries). Scaled to the WhereToEmigrate basket by the median ratio observed on cities both sources cover, so figures are comparable across the dataset; the scaling factor is recorded in the value's note on /methodology. Where the headline estimate is below the city's own outskirts one-bedroom rent divided by 0.55 (rent at most 55% of a single person's spending), the total is raised to that floor; the page's figure is implausibly low there. | WhereNext | city | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-09-22 |
| Regional Price Parities by metropolitan area, 2024 (all items) US city cost = the national single-person estimate scaled by the metro's all-items RPP (US = 100). Input file: scripts/build-dataset/inputs/bea-marpp-msa-2008-2024.csv from https://apps.bea.gov/regional/zip/MARPP.zip. | US Bureau of Economic Analysis | city | Public domain (US Government) | 2026-09-22 |
| City photos (Wikimedia Commons) The city's Wikidata image (P18) when it is a landscape photo, else the Wikipedia lead image, else its Wikivoyage banner (P948); three hand-picked files in data/manual/hero-files.csv. Freely licensed raster files at least 1,000 px wide only, hotlinked as 1,280 px thumbnails. Each city stores the author, licence and file page for attribution. | Wikimedia Commons contributors | city | Per image (CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0, FAL) | 2026-09-26 |
| OpenStreetMap restaurants (Overpass API) Count of OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre coordinate. Measures how many restaurants are mapped, which tracks real density well where OpenStreetMap is well maintained (Europe, the Americas, East and Southeast Asia) and under-counts where it is not (parts of Africa and Central Asia). | OpenStreetMap contributors | city | ODbL 1.0 | 2026-10-02 |
| Nostos long-stay visa guides One record per country in data/manual/visas/<iso2>.json, compiled into data/visa-guides.json. Each guide lists the official government pages it was compiled from with retrieval dates. A guide's `verification` field is set only when a named person has re-read every source; until then pages say the guide is not yet reviewed by a person. | Navoy | country | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-04 |
| Nostos tax profiles for remote earners One record per country in data/manual/tax/<iso2>.json, compiled into data/tax-profiles.json. Describes how a resident is taxed on remote-work income earned abroad, on foreign investment income and on wealth, plus newcomer regimes. General information, not tax advice. A profile's `verification` field is set only when a named person has re-read every source; until then pages say it is not yet reviewed by a person. | Navoy | country | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-27 |
| Starlink availability map Residential service status per country from the file Starlink's map loads. Grouped as on the map: launched or available = available; coming soon, pending regulatory approval or test = coming soon; blacklisted = not offered; unknown or excluded = unknown. Shown on city pages and as a ranker filter; not part of any score. Roaming and maritime plans can work in more places. | SpaceX (Starlink) | country | Factual status cited from starlink.com | 2026-10-07 |
| Air Quality Statistics: validated annual mean PM2.5, 2025 (E1a) Türkiye: mean of non-rural stations within 25 km of the city centre with at least 75% data coverage, replacing WHO AAQ's provisional 2025 rows. Porto: the single urban station with 94% coverage. | European Environment Agency, from national air quality networks | city | CC BY 4.0 (EEA re-use policy) | 2026-11-09 |
Attribution lines required by the sources are reproduced verbatim inside the JSON file under sources[].attribution.