The World's 'Migration Magnet' Cities Are the Worst Value for Your Money

London, New York, LA and San Francisco offer the WORST value on earth 💸
Valerii Emelianov mapped 100 cities on cost of living vs quality of life using Numbeo data:
▫️ Migration magnets rank worst: high costs, expensive housing, services that stop matching expectations
▫️ Porto, Valencia and Prague have held the top of the value ranking for 7 years, and all three keep drifting right as costs climb
▫️ Europe has the widest spread on the planet, from Switzerland to the Balkans
▫️ Sun Belt and Pacific Coast cities are climbing fast on domestic migration
▫️ Some cheap winners are pockets of comfort for elites and tourists rather than the median resident
Quality of life here means purchasing power, safety, healthcare, housing, traffic, pollution and climate

London, New York, LA and San Francisco offer the worst value on earth 💸

Valerii Emelianov mapped 100 cities on cost of living vs. quality of life using Numbeo data:

▫️ Migration magnets rank worst — high costs, expensive housing, services that stop matching expectations
▫️ Porto, Valencia and Prague have led the value ranking for years, though all three keep drifting toward higher costs
▫️ Europe has the widest spread on the planet, from Switzerland to the Balkans
▫️ Sun Belt and Pacific Coast cities are climbing fast on domestic migration
▫️ Some "cheap" winners are pockets of comfort for elites and tourists rather than the median resident

Quality of life here = purchasing power, safety, healthcare, housing, traffic, pollution and climate.

Note: this is a derived "value" ranking (rank-normalized cost vs. quality), not an official Numbeo category. Price appreciation over time isn't factored in, and only non-overlapping cities made the final 100.

Credit: Valerii Emelianov's original analysis.