CITY / CITYVerified city comparison
Los AngelesvsWashington, D.C..
Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. are even on the headline facts, with 1 stronger results each out of 8. Cost of living (single, excl. rent): Los Angeles $1,741/mo, Washington, D.C. $1,741/mo. Freelancer tax burden: Los Angeles 18.1%, Washington, D.C. 18.1%. Climate comfort: Los Angeles 10/12 mo, Washington, D.C. 4/12 mo.
Verified
14 compared criteria · 15 sources · country-level facts are clearly inherited
us / us · SettleMetric
01
The key differences
The key numbers head-to-head — the stronger side is marked. The overall score stays decoration; what matters is which facts fit you.
Headline result
Even — 1 of 8 each
Los Angeles
1
Washington, D.C.
1
01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Los Angeles
$1,741/mo
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
Washington, D.C.
$1,741/mo
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
02Freelancer tax burden
Los Angeles
18.1%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
Washington, D.C.
18.1%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
03Homicide rate
Los Angeles
5.1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
Washington, D.C.
5.1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
04Climate comfort
Los Angelesstronger
10/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Los Angeles Downtown/USC 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: January to July and October to December = 10. Only August (28.9°C) and September (28.3°C) are excluded, both marginally and both for heat. No month is excluded for rain.
Washington, D.C.
4/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Washington Reagan National 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: April, May, September, October = 4. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.5–32°C), November to March for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
- Notes
- The lowest count in this dataset's US coverage, and the metric flatters the city slightly at both ends: it does not account for humidity, which makes a 32°C July afternoon in Washington harder work than a dry 32°C elsewhere.
05Internet speed
Los Angeles
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notes
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
Washington, D.C.
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notes
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
06English proficiency
Los Angeles
Native
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
Washington, D.C.
Native
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
07Private healthcare cost
Los Angeles
$8,892/yr
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 15, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notes
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
Washington, D.C.
$8,892/yr
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 15, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notes
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
08Air quality (PM2.5)
Los Angeles
11.7 µg/m³
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Mean of the 2024 annual arithmetic means from the seven regulatory PM2.5 monitors in Los Angeles County with at least 75% observation completeness: Los Angeles-North Main Street (12.20, exceptional events included), Compton (12.63), Pico Rivera (12.61), Pasadena (11.82), Long Beach-Route 710 Near Road (11.48), Signal Hill (11.34) and Reseda (10.11). The city's own downtown monitor at North Main Street reads 12.2.
- Notes
- 2.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³ and above the US national standard of 9, though far below the 1990s levels that made Los Angeles a byword for smog. The basin traps pollution the way the Po Valley traps Milan's — mountains on three sides and a persistent temperature inversion. The downtown North Main Street figure is the one monitor-year here flagged with exceptional events, and it is reported on the events-included basis, so it reflects what was actually in the air. Comparable to Rome, about 40% below Milan, and nearly double New York's.
Washington, D.C.stronger
6.4 µg/m³
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notes
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
02
Which city fits your plan?
Each lens weighs only the facts that matter to that plan, and names the side it favours.
Remote IT / freelancer
Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.
A close call for this plan
01Freelancer tax burden
Los Angeles
18.1%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
Washington, D.C.
18.1%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
02Internet speed
Los Angeles
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notes
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
Washington, D.C.
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notes
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
03English proficiency
Los Angeles
Native
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
Washington, D.C.
Native
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
04Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Los Angeles
$1,741/mo
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
Washington, D.C.
$1,741/mo
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
05Domestic delivery quality
Los Angeles
Excellent
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.
- Notes
- Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.
Washington, D.C.
Excellent
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.
- Notes
- Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.
Family
Relocating with a partner and school-age children.
Washington, D.C. fits better — 1 of 5
01International schools
Los Angeles
no verified data
Washington, D.C.
no verified data
02Homicide rate
Los Angeles
5.1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
Washington, D.C.
5.1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
03Private healthcare cost
Los Angeles
$8,892/yr
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 15, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notes
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
Washington, D.C.
$8,892/yr
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 15, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notes
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
04Air quality (PM2.5)
Los Angeles
11.7 µg/m³
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Mean of the 2024 annual arithmetic means from the seven regulatory PM2.5 monitors in Los Angeles County with at least 75% observation completeness: Los Angeles-North Main Street (12.20, exceptional events included), Compton (12.63), Pico Rivera (12.61), Pasadena (11.82), Long Beach-Route 710 Near Road (11.48), Signal Hill (11.34) and Reseda (10.11). The city's own downtown monitor at North Main Street reads 12.2.
- Notes
- 2.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³ and above the US national standard of 9, though far below the 1990s levels that made Los Angeles a byword for smog. The basin traps pollution the way the Po Valley traps Milan's — mountains on three sides and a persistent temperature inversion. The downtown North Main Street figure is the one monitor-year here flagged with exceptional events, and it is reported on the events-included basis, so it reflects what was actually in the air. Comparable to Rome, about 40% below Milan, and nearly double New York's.
Washington, D.C.stronger
6.4 µg/m³
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notes
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
05English proficiency
Los Angeles
Native
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
Washington, D.C.
Native
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
Money & crypto
Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.
A close call for this plan
01Crypto regulation
Los Angeles
Legal regulated
Official source
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.
Washington, D.C.
Legal regulated
Official source
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.
02Financial control level
Los Angeles
Moderate
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.
- Notes
- The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.
Washington, D.C.
Moderate
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.
- Notes
- The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.
03Freelancer tax burden
Los Angeles
18.1%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
Washington, D.C.
18.1%
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
Calm lifestyle
Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.
A close call for this plan
01Homicide rate
Los Angeles
5.1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
Washington, D.C.
5.1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
02Air quality (PM2.5)
Los Angeles
11.7 µg/m³
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Mean of the 2024 annual arithmetic means from the seven regulatory PM2.5 monitors in Los Angeles County with at least 75% observation completeness: Los Angeles-North Main Street (12.20, exceptional events included), Compton (12.63), Pico Rivera (12.61), Pasadena (11.82), Long Beach-Route 710 Near Road (11.48), Signal Hill (11.34) and Reseda (10.11). The city's own downtown monitor at North Main Street reads 12.2.
- Notes
- 2.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³ and above the US national standard of 9, though far below the 1990s levels that made Los Angeles a byword for smog. The basin traps pollution the way the Po Valley traps Milan's — mountains on three sides and a persistent temperature inversion. The downtown North Main Street figure is the one monitor-year here flagged with exceptional events, and it is reported on the events-included basis, so it reflects what was actually in the air. Comparable to Rome, about 40% below Milan, and nearly double New York's.
Washington, D.C.stronger
6.4 µg/m³
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notes
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
03Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Los Angeles
$1,741/mo
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
Washington, D.C.
$1,741/mo
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
04Climate comfort
Los Angelesstronger
10/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Los Angeles Downtown/USC 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: January to July and October to December = 10. Only August (28.9°C) and September (28.3°C) are excluded, both marginally and both for heat. No month is excluded for rain.
Washington, D.C.
4/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Washington Reagan National 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: April, May, September, October = 4. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.5–32°C), November to March for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
- Notes
- The lowest count in this dataset's US coverage, and the metric flatters the city slightly at both ends: it does not account for humidity, which makes a 32°C July afternoon in Washington harder work than a dry 32°C elsewhere.
03
The full comparison
Open any fact to see what it measures, how fresh it is and the complete source trail for both cities.
01
Taxes
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Freelancer tax burden% effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profileLos Angeles18.1Washington, D.C.18.1
What this measures
Effective total burden (income tax + mandatory social and health contributions) for a solo IT freelancer with €60,000/year revenue and 10% deductible expenses, using the most favourable eligible scheme in the country's tax-schemes data. Computed by the SettleMetric tax engine; recorded as a curated value with the winning scheme id in method.
Lower is better· % effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profile· re-verified every 365 days
Los Angeles
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
Washington, D.C.
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.
- Notes
- The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.
02
Legalization
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Remote-work legalization easeLos AngelesShort stay onlyWashington, D.C.Short stay only
What this measures
Best available legalization route for a location-independent earner with a median (non-EU, non-US) passport, classified from this country's legalization-paths data: dedicated digital-nomad visa; general freelance/self-employment permit; realistic long-stay path (e.g. renewable temporary residence); only short visa-free/tourist stays; effectively none.
Rated by category· re-verified every 180 days
Los Angeles
U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Visa Waiver Program; 8 CFR 214.2(b) visitor admissions
Official source
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- The United States has no digital-nomad visa and no freelance or self-employment permit — the concept does not exist in US immigration law, which authorises work through a sponsoring employer, a treaty investment, or an immigrant petition. For a location-independent earner with an ordinary passport, the realistic ceiling is a visitor stay: 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program, or up to six months on a B-1/B-2 visa, neither of which authorises work in the United States. The genuine long-stay routes all have a demanding filter — E-2 requires a treaty nationality plus substantial invested capital, O-1A and EB-1A require documented national or international acclaim, and the diversity lottery is a lottery. See data/countries/us/legalization.json for all six.
Washington, D.C.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Visa Waiver Program; 8 CFR 214.2(b) visitor admissions
Official source
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- The United States has no digital-nomad visa and no freelance or self-employment permit — the concept does not exist in US immigration law, which authorises work through a sponsoring employer, a treaty investment, or an immigrant petition. For a location-independent earner with an ordinary passport, the realistic ceiling is a visitor stay: 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program, or up to six months on a B-1/B-2 visa, neither of which authorises work in the United States. The genuine long-stay routes all have a demanding filter — E-2 requires a treaty nationality plus substantial invested capital, O-1A and EB-1A require documented national or international acclaim, and the diversity lottery is a lottery. See data/countries/us/legalization.json for all six.
03
Cost of living
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Cost of living (single, excl. rent)USD/month, single person, excluding rentLos Angeles1,741Washington, D.C.1,741
What this measures
Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.
Lower is better· USD/month, single person, excluding rent· re-verified every 365 days
Los Angeles
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
Washington, D.C.
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.
- Notes
- Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Each 2024 all-consumer-unit annual category mean divided by 2.4 persons and 12 months, on the same basis as the headline figure. Transport $13,318; food at home $6,224; healthcare $6,197; entertainment $3,609 + education $1,569 + reading $125; housing less shelter and utilities $5,213; utilities $4,736; food away from home $3,945; personal care $978 + apparel $2,001; miscellaneous $1,218; alcohol $643 + tobacco $352. Shelter, pensions and cash contributions are excluded. Items sum to $1,739, two dollars below the headline through rounding.
- Notes
- Transport is the largest line and the one that most surprises people arriving from Europe: it is dominated by vehicle purchase, insurance and fuel, because outside a handful of cities a car is not optional. Health at $215 a month per person is roughly three times the European entries in this dataset, and that is out-of-pocket spending on top of insurance premiums, not instead of them.
Transport462 USD
Food & non-alcoholic drinks216 USD
Health (out-of-pocket + insurance)215 USD
Recreation, culture & education184 USD
Household goods, services & furnishings181 USD
Utilities (electricity, gas, water, fuels)164 USD
Restaurants & eating out137 USD
Personal care & clothing103 USD
Miscellaneous42 USD
Alcohol & tobacco35 USD
04
Housing
Rent by apartment type
Asking rent, central price with outside-centre in parentheses ($/mo).
Los Angeles
Washington, D.C.
Official source
- Data as of
- May 21, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- For each apartment size, the 91 ZIP codes with the 900 prefix were sorted by that size's FY2026 Small Area FMR; 'center' is the mean of the priciest quartile (23 ZIPs) and 'outside' the mean of the cheapest quartile. HUD publishes a separate rent for each bedroom count, so no floor-area assumption is required.
- Notes
- The 1.77× centre-to-outside spread is the widest of the three US cities here — Los Angeles has a genuinely bifurcated housing market, and the difference between a Westside and a South LA postcode is larger than the difference between New York and Washington.
Official source
- Data as of
- May 21, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- For each apartment size, the 46 District of Columbia ZIP codes were sorted by that size's FY2026 Small Area FMR; 'center' is the mean of the priciest quartile (12 ZIPs) and 'outside' the mean of the cheapest quartile. HUD publishes a separate rent for each bedroom count, so no floor-area assumption is required.
- Notes
- Studio and one-bedroom rents in the expensive quarter are almost identical ($2,608 against $2,691) — in central Washington the extra room costs about $80 a month, which is the smallest such step in this dataset and reflects how tight the small-unit market is around the federal core.
01Studio
Los Angeles
$2,851$1,611 outside
Washington, D.C.cheaper
$2,608$1,680 outside
021-bedroom
Los Angeles
$3,191$1,804 outside
Washington, D.C.cheaper
$2,691$1,730 outside
032-bedroom
Los Angeles
$3,979$2,252 outside
Washington, D.C.cheaper
$3,000$1,930 outside
043-bedroom
Los Angeles
$5,046$2,856 outside
Washington, D.C.cheaper
$3,784$2,436 outside
05
Safety
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Homicide rateintentional homicides per 100,000/yearLos Angeles5.1Washington, D.C.5.1
What this measures
Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).
Lower is better· intentional homicides per 100,000/year· re-verified every 730 days
Los Angeles
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
Washington, D.C.
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- 17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.
06
Climate
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Climate comfortpleasant months/yearLos Angelesstronger10Washington, D.C.4
What this measures
Number of months whose 1991–2020 climate normals satisfy: mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and monthly precipitation under 150mm. Computed from the city's climate-normals indicator; the raw normals are stored alongside so users can judge by their own taste.
Higher is better· pleasant months/year· re-verified every 3650 days
Los Angeles
SettleMetric — computed from the Los Angeles Downtown/USC 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: January to July and October to December = 10. Only August (28.9°C) and September (28.3°C) are excluded, both marginally and both for heat. No month is excluded for rain.
Washington, D.C.
SettleMetric — computed from the Washington Reagan National 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2020
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum of 15–28°C and under 150mm of precipitation: April, May, September, October = 4. June, July and August are excluded for heat (29.5–32°C), November to March for cold. No month is excluded for rain.
- Notes
- The lowest count in this dataset's US coverage, and the metric flatters the city slightly at both ends: it does not account for humidity, which makes a 32°C July afternoon in Washington harder work than a dry 32°C elsewhere.
02+−Air quality (PM2.5)µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5Los Angeles11.7Washington, D.C.stronger6.4
What this measures
Annual mean fine-particulate (PM2.5) concentration for the city, latest available year. Anchors follow the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³ → 10) through the EU limit value territory (25 µg/m³ → 2). Preferred source: European Environment Agency city-level air quality data; outside Europe: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database or the national monitoring network.
Lower is better· µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5· re-verified every 730 days
Los Angeles
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Mean of the 2024 annual arithmetic means from the seven regulatory PM2.5 monitors in Los Angeles County with at least 75% observation completeness: Los Angeles-North Main Street (12.20, exceptional events included), Compton (12.63), Pico Rivera (12.61), Pasadena (11.82), Long Beach-Route 710 Near Road (11.48), Signal Hill (11.34) and Reseda (10.11). The city's own downtown monitor at North Main Street reads 12.2.
- Notes
- 2.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³ and above the US national standard of 9, though far below the 1990s levels that made Los Angeles a byword for smog. The basin traps pollution the way the Po Valley traps Milan's — mountains on three sides and a persistent temperature inversion. The downtown North Main Street figure is the one monitor-year here flagged with exceptional events, and it is reported on the events-included basis, so it reflects what was actually in the air. Comparable to Rome, about 40% below Milan, and nearly double New York's.
Washington, D.C.
Official source
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Annual arithmetic mean of 6.44 µg/m³ recorded in 2024 at the McMillan NCore-PAMS site, the District's single regulatory PM2.5 monitor with full-year coverage (97% observation completeness, no exceptional events flagged).
- Notes
- The cleanest air of the three US cities here and among the cleanest in this dataset — 1.3× the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, well inside the US standard of 9. One monitor is a thin basis for a whole city compared with New York's eight, but the District is small and flat, and the neighbouring monitors in the same EPA dataset agree: Aurora Hills in Arlington, Virginia reads 6.49–6.91 and HU-Beltsville in Prince George's County, Maryland reads 5.61–6.10.
07
Healthcare
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Private healthcare costUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldLos Angeles8,892Washington, D.C.8,892
What this measures
Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.
Lower is better· USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old· re-verified every 365 days
Los Angeles
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 15, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notes
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
Washington, D.C.
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 15, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.
- Notes
- Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.
08
Money & crypto
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Crypto regulationLos AngelesLegal regulatedWashington, D.C.Legal regulated
What this measures
Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.
Rated by category· re-verified every 180 days
Los Angeles
Official source
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.
Washington, D.C.
Official source
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.
02+−Financial control levelLos AngelesModerateWashington, D.C.Moderate
What this measures
Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.
Rated by category· re-verified every 365 days
Los Angeles
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.
- Notes
- The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.
Washington, D.C.
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.
- Notes
- The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.
09
Infrastructure
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−Domestic delivery qualityLos AngelesExcellentWashington, D.C.Excellent
What this measures
Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.
Rated by category· re-verified every 730 days
Los Angeles
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.
- Notes
- Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.
Washington, D.C.
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Aug 1, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.
- Notes
- Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.
02+−International delivery easeLos AngelesSignificant frictionWashington, D.C.Significant friction
What this measures
Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.
Rated by category· re-verified every 365 days
Los Angeles
Official source
- Data as of
- Feb 20, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- This changed fundamentally in 2025 and is the fact most likely to be out of date in anyone's head. The United States used to have the most generous de minimis threshold in the world — $800 duty- and tax-free per person per day — which made ordering from abroad trivially easy. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries from 29 August 2025, and Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension in February 2026. Every inbound shipment is now dutiable regardless of value, postal shipments carry duties set by the order, and carriers charge brokerage on top. The carriers themselves are excellent and clearance is quick, so this is friction of cost and paperwork rather than unreliability — but a €40 parcel from Europe now arrives with a bill attached.
Washington, D.C.
Official source
- Data as of
- Feb 20, 2026
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- This changed fundamentally in 2025 and is the fact most likely to be out of date in anyone's head. The United States used to have the most generous de minimis threshold in the world — $800 duty- and tax-free per person per day — which made ordering from abroad trivially easy. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries from 29 August 2025, and Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension in February 2026. Every inbound shipment is now dutiable regardless of value, postal shipments carry duties set by the order, and carriers charge brokerage on top. The carriers themselves are excellent and clearance is quick, so this is friction of cost and paperwork rather than unreliability — but a €40 parcel from Europe now arrives with a bill attached.
03+−Internet speedMbps, median fixed downloadLos Angeles84.9Washington, D.C.84.9
What this measures
Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.
Higher is better· Mbps, median fixed download· re-verified every 365 days
Los Angeles
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notes
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
Washington, D.C.
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.
- Notes
- The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.
10
Language
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−English proficiencyLos AngelesNativeWashington, D.C.Native
What this measures
Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.
Rated by category· re-verified every 730 days
Los Angeles
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
Washington, D.C.
Official source
- Data as of
- Mar 1, 2025
- Verified
- Aug 1, 2026
- Notes
- English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.
11
Education
CriterionLos AngelesWashington, D.C.
01+−International schoolsaccredited international schools, countLos Angelesno verified dataWashington, D.C.no verified data
What this measures
Count of international schools in the metro area accredited by or member of IB, CIS, COBIS, or an equivalent national-curriculum-abroad body (verified against the accreditor's public registry, not aggregator sites).
Higher is better· accredited international schools, count· re-verified every 730 days
Los Angeles
Los Angeles plainly has international schools, including long-established French, German and Japanese ones, but any figure we published without a countable source would be a guess, and a guess in a comparison table is worse than a blank. This should be filled from a directory that covers the city on the same basis as the others.
Washington, D.C.
Washington almost certainly has an unusually high provision for its size, because a diplomatic capital attracts national schools — but 'almost certainly' is not a number, and the count belongs here only once it can be sourced on the same basis as the other cities.