Europe has taken every position in the top 10 of ECA International’s 2025–26 Location Ratings, with Switzerland’s capital, Bern, named the world’s most liveable city. The continent accounts for 38 of the global top 50 locations - highlighting its continued dominance as the most attractive region for expatriates and international employees.
Bern leads the 275 locations evaluated worldwide, followed by Copenhagen in second place. Stavanger in Norway claims third position, while Geneva ranks fourth. Luxembourg City completes the top five.
“Europe continues to set the benchmark for global liveability,” said Neil Ashman, Analytics Manager – Location Insight at ECA International. “The top cities combine safety, reliable infrastructure, low air pollution, democratic freedoms and stable socio-political conditions - qualities that matter most for expatriates building a life abroad.”
ECA’s Location Ratings evaluate a wide range of factors that influence day-to-day living standards for international employees, including personal security, political stability, air quality, healthcare, housing availability, infrastructure, recreation, and access to essential goods and services.
European cities perform strongly across all measures, with Switzerland, the Nordic countries and Western Europe consistently at the top. Notably, no European city features in the bottom 50.
Outside Europe, the contrast is stark. The bottom 10 locations are dominated by conflict-affected and unstable regions across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean, where security challenges and infrastructural limitations significantly impact liveability.
ECA’s 2025-26 Location Ratings provides comprehensive data to support organisations in planning and managing international assignments.
To get a copy of ECA’s full locations rankings report, please email contact@eca.global.
-ENDS-
For more information and to receive the full rankings, please contact Izzy Jenkins at The Think Tank at izzyj@thinktank.org.uk or call +44 (0) 20 4592 8789
Methodology – About ECA’s Location Rankings Data
Updated annually, ECA International's Location Ratings system measures the quality of expatriate living conditions in over 500 locations around the world to arrive at a fair and consistent assessment of the level of difficulty the expatriate will experience in adapting to a new location. Factors evaluated include climate; availability of health services; housing and utilities; isolation; access to a social network and leisure facilities; infrastructure; personal safety; political tensions and air quality.
About ECA International
ECA International helps organisations manage cross-border workforces with confidence. Our integrated platform and advisory services cover the full spectrum of global mobility—from long-term assignments and international remote work to business travel compliance and cost benchmarking.
With over 50 years of experience and a customer base spanning 300+ locations worldwide, we support the mobility programmes of companies headquartered in more than 70 countries, managing over one million employees across borders.
Our proprietary data underpins key decisions, from pay and benefits to compliance risk and policy design. This includes cost-of-living and housing benchmarks in over 500 locations, and survey insights drawn from global employers across all industries.
ECA’s platform brings together tax, immigration, assignment tracking, and travel compliance into a single, streamlined experience for HR, mobility and reward teams. Tracker Software Technologies became part of ECA in 2024. Global Expat Pay, supported by ECA since 2022, continues to operate independently while benefitting from shared insight and infrastructure.