Planning to Move Abroad with Your Family? These Countries Offer…

Planning to Move Abroad with Your Family? These Countries Offer the Most

04/16/2025

Moving abroad is not an easy decision. It is necessary to carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Go alone, return home on weekends, or move completely with the children?

Many who leave alone keep their residence in their home country and travel hundreds of kilometers every week, which often means less time to rest, emotional exhaustion, and constantly balancing between two lives.

If you are considering moving the whole family, it is important to take numerous factors into account, from the education system, childcare costs, the number of parks and general safety, all the way to air quality and other living conditions.

According to the latest research conducted by expat insurance experts from the company William Russell, and published by Forbes in December 2024, Europe dominates the list of the best countries for relocating with a family. The research analyzed childcare costs, annual number of working hours, level of education, and other family-related factors.

The top five

At the very top of the ranking is Portugal. This country offers affordable living costs, including average apartment prices (€234 per m²), low utility costs (€105 per month), and childcare costs that average only 5% of the household budget.

In second place is Sweden, which offers an excellent work-life balance thanks to one of the lowest averages of annual working hours (1,440.5 hours). This country offers an exceptionally affordable kindergarten system (4% of the household budget) and is home to ten world-renowned universities.

Italy is third in the ranking and stands out especially for having some of the lowest childcare costs in the world. In addition, it holds a high position in the number of world-class universities.

The list of the best is rounded out by Spain, thanks to low housing and utility costs, and Finland, which stands out with the highest number of weeks of paid maternity and parental leave, as many as 161 weeks.

Where is the Balkans in all this?

No Balkan country made it into the top 5, and two are in the middle of the ranking (Greece and Slovenia). Other Balkan countries such as Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria did not find their place on this list.

Top countries for family relocation according to the Family Relocation Report published by William Russell: