Which are the best English-speaking countries to live in?

How we chose these seven countries

Our selection rule is simple: countries where English has official status in a national constitution, statute or executive order that we could read, or where a national statistics office reports English as the main language of the population. By that rule we include Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. We left out other places where English is widely used, because we did not compare them source by source for this page, and the omission is not a judgement.

We then added indices that cover all seven. The Global Peace Index ranks 163 countries and territories, so every country here has a position. Two countries needed care. New Zealand's census language tables could not be loaded for this page, so we give no New Zealand spoken-language figure. For Singapore we could read the Constitution but not the census release, so we give its legal status only.

What the legal texts say about English

Ireland's Constitution is explicit. Article 8 names Irish as the first official language and English as a second official language. Canada's Official Languages Act recites in its preamble that the Constitution of Canada provides that English and French are the official languages of Canada, with equality of status in the institutions of Parliament and government. Singapore's Constitution, in Article 153A, lists Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English as its four official languages and separately makes Malay the national language.

The United States is a more recent case. A presidential executive order dated 1 March 2025 states that English is the official language of the United States. The same order revokes Executive Order 13166 on services for people with limited English proficiency, while stating that nothing in it requires or directs any change in the services provided by any agency. That is an executive designation, which is a different legal footing from a constitution or an Act of parliament. For Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand we did not read a legal text on this point, so for the first two we rely on census data and for New Zealand we state nothing.

What national statistics offices report

In the 2021 Census of England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics reports that 91.1 per cent of residents aged three and over, about 52.6 million of 57.7 million, had English, or Welsh in Wales, as their main language. We did not read the equivalent tables for Scotland or Northern Ireland, so the figure does not cover the whole United Kingdom.

Statistics Canada's 2021 results use three different measures, which shows how the definition matters. Some 75.5 per cent reported English as their first official language spoken, 74.2 per cent spoke it at home at least on a regular basis, and 63.8 per cent spoke it predominantly at home. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 72.0 per cent of people as using English only at home in 2021, which excludes the many people who use English alongside another language. For the United States, the Census Bureau's 2018 to 2022 American Community Survey estimates say that 78.3 per cent of people aged five and over spoke only English at home.

None of these shares measures how well people speak English, and a country with a lower at-home share can still use English for work and public services. Quebec is a clear Canadian example: a Statistics Canada release describes English there as a minority language, even though English is an official language of Canada.

The four indices, and what each measures

The UNDP human development index combines health, education and income into a score between 0 and 1. We used the 2025 report's time series, whose latest values are for 2023. It is a country-level average, so it says nothing about a specific city or neighbourhood.

The World Bank price level index for household consumption compares the cost of everyday goods and services with the United States, which is set at 100. A lower number means the same basket costs less when converted at market exchange rates. We used 2024 values in the table, and the same series has 2025 values that differ in some cases. Ireland moved from 95.5 in 2024 to 102.1 in 2025, and the United Kingdom from 87.3 to 92.4. Because exchange rates drive part of the index, treat it as a guide to relative price levels, not a budget. Rent and housing are only part of it.

Life expectancy at birth comes from the World Bank series built on United Nations population estimates and national statistics. The Global Peace Index, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, ranks 163 countries and territories on 23 indicators; a lower score means more peace. Its 2026 edition puts New Zealand second behind Iceland. The index covers conflict, militarisation and societal safety at national level, and it is not a measure of crime in a given city.

What the comparison does and does not show

The seven sit close together on human development: from 0.938 to 0.958, ranks 7 to 17 in the UNDP list. Australia is highest, Ireland second, and the United Kingdom and Singapore share 0.946. New Zealand and the United States share 0.938, so 0.02 separates first from last.

Price levels spread out more. Singapore has the lowest 2024 value of the seven at 78.0, and Ireland the highest outside the United States at 95.5. Yet the 2025 values for Ireland and the United Kingdom jumped, which is a reminder that these figures move with exchange rates. Life expectancy runs from 78.89 years in the United States to 83.35 in Singapore, with Australia and Ireland just above 83.

The Global Peace Index separates the group most sharply, from New Zealand at 2nd to the United States at 134th. The report ties the American position to rising political violence and a deterioration in its score, but a national score is a poor guide to any one street, town or campus. No single column makes a country the best for you. Climate, rent in your target city, healthcare arrangements and your own work or family ties will usually matter more than a country-level index, and none of them is captured here.

Trying a country before committing

A common way to test a move is to stay a month or more in the city you are considering, before looking for a lease. A serviced apartment with a kitchen and a table you can work at is one practical option, since you can cook, do laundry and keep a routine instead of living out of a suitcase. Our explainer on monthly serviced apartments covers how those stays work, and long-term serviced apartments covers longer ones.

The table below shows what our catalogue lists in each of these countries, and you can browse the country pages for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. For rules on entering and staying, check the official immigration website of the country you are considering.

Limits of this page

Several gaps are worth stating plainly. We did not read a legal text for Australia, the United Kingdom or New Zealand, and we could not load census language tables for New Zealand or Singapore. The OECD Better Life Index and similar composite surveys were left out, as were commercial rankings, whose methods and samples are not open to the same checking. English-proficiency tests run by companies measure test takers who chose to sit them, so we did not use them as a basis for any claim.

The data also ages quickly. The HDI values are for 2023, the price level and life expectancy values are for 2024 with a 2025 price level where we mention it, and the peace index covers the period to the end of 2025 for most indicators. Re-check each source before a decision that matters, and treat this page as a map of where to look, not as a recommendation.