where TO emigrate
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Data sources

Every programme. A government URL. No exceptions.

Every visa programme enters the database with a named, fetchable link to its official source. Country context is different, and we'll say so plainly: 97% of our cost-of-living data comes from Numbeo, a crowdsourced panel. Crowdsourced data is barred from ever supplying a visa or tax rule. Below: every source, by country, by pathway — including the gaps.

7,000+
Pathways with an official source URL
197
Countries
Q2 26
Last sweep
72h
Mid-cycle SLA

EU & EEA · 27 countries

758 URLs · verified 2026-05-12

Americas · 35 countries

519 URLs · verified 2026-05-10

Asia & Pacific · 32 countries

443 URLs · verified 2026-05-08
Policy

The three rules for what enters the index.

Calibrated so this page is the receipt for every claim in every report.

Rule 01

Named, fetchable, official.

Every visa programme carries a link to its official source page — almost always the issuing authority's own site (canada.ca, migri.fi, ind.nl, migrationsverket.se, bamf.de), a national gazette, or an official programme portal. A tail of 75 programmes (2%) points instead to a UN, academic or NGO legal database — UNHCR Refworld, GLOBALCIT, ILO NATLEX — for the handful of countries that publish no usable page of their own. This rule governs visa rules only. Country context is a separate layer, held to a lower standard. Rule 02 says how much lower.

Rule 02

Crowdsourced data cannot touch your verdict.

Numbeo — a crowdsourced panel — supplies 97% of our cost-of-living facts. We'd rather tell you than have you assume otherwise. It is the de-facto reference for prices, and no statistics agency publishes rent and grocery data for 190+ countries. But it is barred by policy from supplying an immigration or tax rule: in our source registry it is flagged blocked for both. It shapes context. It can never move your eligibility verdict — that runs on government sources alone.

Rule 03

Quarterly sweep + fast-tracked fixes.

Top-30 destinations re-verified each quarter. If a country gazettes a material change mid-quarter and it's flagged to us, we verify it against the source and ship the fix within 14 days — the diff appears at /changelog.

Found something out of date? Tell us.

Send the programme name and the official URL. We verify it within 72 hours and, once confirmed, fix the database within 14 days — crediting the contributor in the changelog.

hello@wheretoemigrate.io

Logged at /changelog · contributor credited by name (or anonymously)

Open data attributions

Where this site or our reports use third-party open datasets, attribution per their licences:

Counts are live against our database as of 2026-07-13 and cover the 14,302 country-level facts we serve. Sources we monitor but which currently feed zero facts — OECD, Eurostat, WHO, UNDP, IMF, UNESCO — are deliberately not listed above. Naming a source we don't actually use would be the same lie in the opposite direction.

Per-field provenance

Every number in our reports should be defensible. The table below shows the current state per field across the 190+ countries in our reference data — including the brutal distinction between numbers we re-pull live from the source and numbers that carry a labeled source we haven't re-verified today.

Legend:   ✓ Live = freshly pulled today from the cited source ·   ◐ Labeled = source name correct, value pre-existed (not re-verified today) ·   ◯ Pending = source NAMED as verification target; value still awaiting re-pull

Field Status Coverage Source
gdp_per_capita✓ Live83.2%World Bank · WDI NY.GDP.PCAP.CD (pulled today 2026-05-29)
unemployment✓ Live74.6%World Bank · WDI SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS (pulled today 2026-05-29)
inflation✓ Live71.5%World Bank · WDI FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG (pulled today 2026-05-29)
cost_of_living_index_wb✓ Live~86%World Bank · WDI PA.NUS.PPP (pulled today 2026-05-29) — clean composite alternative
min_wage✓ Live53.1%ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization) — 167 countries
gini_index✓ Live32.8%World Bank · WDI SI.POV.GINI (pulled today 2026-05-29) — WB publishes irregularly per country, hard ceiling
personal_rate_top◐ Labeled83.6%PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — source named, value pre-existed (not re-pulled today)
special_regime◐ Labeled83.6%PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — value pre-existed
vat_rate_pct◐ Labeled82.0%PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — value pre-existed
effective_rate_90k◐ Labeled78.5%PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — value pre-existed
healthcare_index◐ Labeled85.9%World Bank composite (122 countries) + Numbeo, crowdsourced (89 countries)
safety_index◐ Labeled80.1%Numbeo, crowdsourced (89 countries) + Global Peace Index, IEP (78 countries)
cost_of_living_index◐ Labeled85.9%Numbeo, crowdsourced (152 countries) + World Bank (62). WB-only alternative published as cost_of_living_index_wb
rent_1br / groceries / transport / utilities / dining◐ Labeled~78%Numbeo — crowdsourced, 100% of these fields (rent_1br/groceries/transport/utilities 194 countries, dining 186). No statistics agency publishes these globally.
avg_salary◯ Pending80.9%Eurostat (EU) / OECD / ILOSTAT regional — verification per top-30 destination still pending

Coverage % = countries where the value carries a per-field _last_verified + _source stamp. The Status column is the honest truth about how recently we re-verified each value against its named source. Re-generated from reports/data-provenance/by-field.json per audit run. If a number you rely on isn't defensibly sourced, email us: hello@wheretoemigrate.io.

How we use your quiz answers

Every question feeds a specific part of the matching engine. Nothing decorative. Here's the map.

Nationality

Passport drives the visa pathways open to you. We filter the 7,000+ programmes against your nationality's blocked/eligible lists. EU citizens also unlock intra-EU free-movement rules.

Age

Age gates working-holiday schemes (typically 18–35), points-based skilled visas (CRS for Canada, EOI for NZ), and retirement-residence routes (often 50+ or 55+).

Family status & children

Household size adjusts required savings, processing fees per dependent, and cost-of-living projections. Children unlock education-related pathways and trigger international-school cost overlays.

Education

Minimum education is a hard gate on most skilled visas (bachelor's typical, master's for points bumps). Drives credential-recognition steps in your action plan.

Profession, job offer & work location

Occupation matches against shortage lists, skill-class codes (NOC, ANZSCO, ESCO), and employer-sponsorship routes. Whether you have an offer changes which route is "active" vs "Plan B". Remote work routes you toward digital-nomad and freelancer-friendly destinations.

Years of experience

Experience drives points-based scoring (CRS, EOI), unlocks senior/critical-skills tracks, and shifts your placement in employer-sponsored routes.

Languages

Most countries require a proficiency level (B1, B2, C1) in an official language. English level alone qualifies you for Anglophone routes; other languages unlock destinations where English is not the medium.

Income & income type

Minimum-income thresholds gate digital-nomad visas, employer-sponsored work permits, and family-sponsorship routes. Income type (employed / self-employed / passive / freelance) routes you to different visa families.

Savings

Most non-employment routes require liquid savings as proof of funds. We also use savings to compute your runway against destination cost-of-living before any income lands.

Investment willingness

Unlocks investor, golden-visa, citizenship-by-investment, and startup-visa routes (€50k+ skews startup; €250k+ skews golden-visa; €500k+ unlocks CBI tier).

Primary goal & priorities

Goal is the SEGMENT key — routes you to the right brief template (Skilled-EM, Intra-EU, HNW, Nomad, Family). Priorities weight the scoring across safety, tax, climate, cost, and quality-of-life dimensions.

No question is decorative. If a field is collected, it drives at least one downstream decision in your report.