How we compile and score the guides
What every number means, where it comes from, and how fresh it is.
What's measured and what's estimated
- Weather: monthly averages from NASA POWER (MERRA-2, 2001–2020) at each place's coordinates. Temperatures are adjusted for elevation at 6.5 °C per 1,000 m because the model's grid cells are about 50 km wide.
- Air quality: measured annual PM2.5, PM10 and NO₂ from the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database (2023 and 2026 releases), matched to each place by name or by distance (20 km, 30 km for islands). We only publish an air-quality page when a real measurement exists.
- Travel advisories: the US State Department advisory level and date for each country, fetched when the guides are built.
- Crime, roads, water and health spending: World Bank open data: intentional homicides (UNODC), road traffic deaths (WHO), safely managed drinking water (WHO/UNICEF JMP), health spending and doctors per 1,000 people. We always show the year.
- Visas: the open passport-index dataset (MIT licence, February 2026). Visa rules change; confirm with the official portal we link.
- Internet speeds: national medians from Ookla's Speedtest Global Index; a city figure appears only when a published city median exists.
- Exchange rates: ExchangeRate-API open rates from 03 Oct 2026.
- Everything else (prices, safety notes, scams, neighbourhoods, transport, apps, hospitals, LGBTQ+ scene, solo travel) is researched by SoloSquare from official sources: transit operators, airports, hospitals, governments and app makers' own city lists. Prices are typical 2026 ranges, not exact quotes.
Ratings
Safety, LGBTQ+ friendliness, solo travel, friendliness and English use a 1–5 scale applied the same way everywhere. Safety 5 means very safe (Tokyo, Ljubljana), 4 safe with normal care (Bangkok, Lisbon), 3 take real precautions, 2 high risk and 1 avoid travel. They're editorial judgments based on official advisories, crime data and local reporting, not crowd votes. Where the US State Department advises “Do not travel” for a whole country, no place in it rates above 2.
The value score
Value for money compares quality of life with cost. Quality is a weighted average of safety (30%), healthcare (15%, from health spending per person), internet (15%), air quality (15%), weather (10%, comfortable months a year), friendly locals (7.5%) and English (7.5%). We divide it by a comfortable monthly budget in US dollars and rank every place: a value score of 80 means better value than 79% of the 1,319 places we cover.
Freshness and corrections
The guides were last built on 2026-10-06. Pages show the month they were updated. If something is wrong or out of date, email [email protected] and we'll fix it.
Why SoloSquare makes these
SoloSquare helps solo travelers, nomads and locals meet up for small plans in the same city. These guides answer the questions people ask before a trip, for free, with no account needed.