This page documents every data source, index, and calculation used by the FIRE World Map. We believe in radical transparency — if you're trusting this tool with your FIRE planning, you deserve to know exactly how the numbers work.
The SWR is the percentage of your invested capital you can withdraw annually without depleting your portfolio over a long retirement (30+ years). The canonical 4% rule comes from the Trinity Study (1998) and subsequent updates by Bengen, Pfau, and others. Our tool defaults to 4% and lets you adjust between 2%–6%.
You can also work backwards: given a country's annual cost at your chosen lifestyle tier, how much capital would you need invested at your current SWR?
Each country gets one of three verdicts based on how its annual cost compares to your budget:
| Verdict | Ratio (Annual Cost ÷ Budget) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ✓ FIRE Ready (green) | ≤ 0.75 | You can live there with a comfortable margin |
| ≈ Borderline (yellow) | 0.75 – 1.00 | Tight but potentially doable with frugal adjustments |
| ✗ Too Costly (red) | > 1.00 | Exceeds your annual budget; not affordable at this lifestyle |
Cost of living varies dramatically within any country depending on lifestyle choices. Rather than a single "average" cost, we provide three tiers defined by spending patterns:
| Tier | Slider Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Frugal | 0–33% | Cooking at home, local public transport, minimal eating out, basic accommodation. Ideal for Lean FIRE. |
| Comfortable | 34–80% | Regular dining out, hobbies, occasional travel, decent apartment. The sweet spot for most FIRE planners. |
| Affluent | 81–100% | Restaurants, gym membership, car ownership, a nice apartment. For Fat FIRE. |
The cost multiplier is interpolated across the slider, blending between Frugal, Comfortable, and Affluent cost estimates. The lifestyles.json file defines base multipliers for each tier.
Costs are adjusted by household size using living-cost equivalence scales:
| Type | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Single | 1.0× |
| Couple | 1.5× |
| Couple + 1 child | 1.8× |
| Couple + 2 children | 2.1× |
Affordability is built on a matrix of lifestyle tiers and family structures. Each country and city has pre-calculated annual cost estimates for every combination of:
The lifestyle slider interpolates between the three tiers to produce a single blended annual cost estimate for your selected household type. See lifestyles.json and lifestyle_countries.json for the complete dataset. Updated 2025
Important caveat: Cost estimates are directional, not absolute. Actual expenses vary based on individual spending habits, neighborhood choice, and market fluctuations. Treat all costs as planning guidelines.
Source: Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) — Global Peace Index 2025. Updated 2025
The GPI ranks 163 independent states and territories by their level of peacefulness, covering 99.7% of the world's population. It uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators across three domains:
Scale: 1.0 (most peaceful) to ~3.5 (least peaceful). We normalise scores to a 0–1 range for the composite and colour mapping. Lower GPI scores are better.
Source: World Health Organization — World Health Report 2000. 2000 (latest WHO ranking)
The WHO assessed 191 member states' health systems across five intrinsic goals:
Caveat: This is the most recent comprehensive WHO ranking, now over two decades old. It remains widely cited but should be interpreted with caution. We display it because no equivalent modern dataset covers this many countries. We also show the DALE (disability-adjusted life expectancy) rank and health expenditure per capita rank separately, which are more timeless indicators.
Source: EF Education First — English Proficiency Index. Updated 2025
The EF EPI ranks countries and regions by English skills among adults who took the EF Standard English Test (EF SET) or one of EF's English placement tests. The 2025 edition covers over 100 countries and territories with data from millions of test-takers.
Scale: Scores range from ~300 (very low proficiency) to ~800 (very high). We map scores to five proficiency bands: Very Low (300–399), Low (400–449), Moderate (450–499), High (500–599), and Very High (600+).
Caveat: EF EPI scores represent test-takers, not the general population. Test-takers skew younger and more educated. Countries with higher scores tend to have better English education systems and more exposure to English media.
Source: Surfshark — Digital Quality of Life Index. Updated 2025
The DQL ranks 121 countries across five pillars:
Lower ranks (closer to #1) are better. We show the global rank out of 121.
Source: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Columbia University — Environmental Performance Index. Updated 2025
The EPI ranks 180 countries on environmental performance across 40 indicators in two main categories:
Scale: 0–100 (higher is better). We use five performance bands: Critical (0–40), Weak (40–50), Moderate (50–60), Strong (60–70), and Excellent (70–100).
Source: PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries and national tax authority publications. Updated 2025
We display the headline individual capital gains tax rate for each country. This is the standard rate applied to realised investment gains for a resident individual. Note that actual tax liability depends on holding period, income level, tax treaties, and whether the country applies a flat rate or progressive scale. Treat this as a directional guide, not tax advice — always consult a professional.
Source: Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) estimates. Used as a supplementary indicator for Francophone expats.
The Composite mode blends all enabled indices into a single score per country. Each metric is first normalised to a 0–1 scale (1 = best), then multiplied by its weight.
By default, only Affordability is enabled at weight 50. You can enable any combination of GPI, WHO, EF EPI, DQL, and EPI. The Capital Gains Tax metric is inverted (lower tax = better). Enable what matters to you — a family with children might weigh safety and healthcare more heavily; a digital nomad might focus on DQL and English proficiency.
Exchange rates are fetched live from the Frankfurter API (sourced from the European Central Bank reference rates). Rates are cached in localStorage per day. If the fetch fails, fallback rates (1 EUR = 1.08 USD, 1 EUR = 160 JPY, 1 EUR = 1500 KRW) are used. All cost data is stored in EUR and converted on-the-fly.
The FIRE World Map codebase, data files, and methodology are open and inspectable. You can verify every calculation. Feedback and corrections are welcome — see the repository for details.