Where should I study? Rank every country by what matters to you.

How the fit is worked out

Each factor scores from 0 to 1, weighted by how much you said it matters — tuition counts 3×, English-only 4×, living costs 3× if they matter a lot and 1.5× if a bit, climate and distance 2×, each interest you tick 1×, and work after study 3× if important or 1.5× if nice to have. The fit is the weighted average, out of 100. Where a country has no figure (Taiwan and Venezuela have no World Bank price level, for example), that factor takes the middle score of the countries that do, so a gap neither helps nor hurts; a tuition or work rule we haven't checked yet scores a neutral 0.5. Then the safety adjustment: the fit of a country at war is multiplied by 0.5, and of a country with lower-level armed conflict by 0.8 (below). Your home country is left out.

Tuition

What an international student typically pays for a bachelor's at a public university, in five bands: free (no tuition, or a registration fee under US$500 a year); low (under about US$3,000 a year); moderate (about US$3,000–10,000 a year); high (over about US$10,000 a year); varies (set by each university, with no typical figure). Each band is read from the country's own official source, linked on its card with the date we checked it. Choosing "free only" is the only answer that removes countries — and a country we haven't checked yet is kept, listed after the confirmed ones.

Day-to-day prices

The World Bank's price level (2013–2025): what the same basket of goods and services costs in dollars, from purchasing-power parities divided by the exchange rate. We compare the country with yours — on a ratio scale, so half your home prices and twice your home prices are equally far from "the same" — and show it as a band, never a precise figure. It is a national average for the whole economy; rent in a capital city can be far higher.

Climate

Country-average monthly temperatures, 1991–2020 (ERA5, from the World Bank's Climate Change Knowledge Portal). Cold winters: the coldest month averages below 0 °C. Warm: the coldest month averages 18 °C or more, or there is no real winter (10 °C+) and a hot summer (28 °C+). Mild: everything between. Countries of 1.5 million km² or more, or with peaks of 5,000 m or more, are marked "varies by region" — a national average hides the difference between Bogotá and the Caribbean coast.

Language

Official languages from Wikidata. If you want English only, countries where English is official rank highest; countries with English-taught programmes on this site's cross-country list come next; every other country stays in, marked "check English-taught options" — many teach some degrees in English that we don't yet list.

Distance and time difference

A straight line between capitals and the difference in standard time. "Close" scores fully up to 2,500 km and not at all from 5,000 km; "within about 8 hours' flight" fully up to 6,500 km and not at all from 10,000 km. We never quote flight times — routes and connections vary too much.

What's around you

Plain facts only: a coastline (Wikidata's landlocked countries have none), the highest point, the population of the largest city (World Bank), and the number of cultural and natural UNESCO World Heritage sites (Wikidata). Food, nightlife and "culture" are not scored — there is no fair source, and scoring them would mean stereotyping.

Safety: armed conflict

This one isn't a question — it always applies. From the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP, CC BY 4.0), we take the deaths in state-based armed conflict (fighting in which a government is one side) that UCDP's event data places inside each country's borders in 2025, the latest year it covers. 1,000 or more is shown as "war" and the fit is multiplied by 0.5; 25 to 999 is "armed conflict" and the fit is multiplied by 0.8; fewer than 25 counts as none. In 2025 that puts 14 of the 131 countries at war and 14 at armed conflict; each card says so, with the year. It counts where the fighting was recorded, not which governments took part. A country at war also loses the priority that confirmed free tuition otherwise gives. It does not count violence between armed groups with no government involved (such as gangs or cartels) or attacks on civilians outside a conflict, and it is not a travel advisory — we use no government's travel advisories. Palestine is read from the events UCDP places in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Work after study

Whether the government offers graduates a route to stay and work — yes, limited, no or unclear — from its own immigration rules, linked on each card with the date we read them.