CITY / CITYComparación de ciudades verificada
Los Angelesvs.Mexico City.
Los Angeles y Mexico City empatan en los datos principales, con 4 resultados mejores cada una de 8. Cost of living (single, excl. rent): Los Angeles $1741/mo, Mexico City $780/mo. Freelancer tax burden: Los Angeles 18,1%, Mexico City 2%. Climate comfort: Los Angeles 10/12 mo, Mexico City 12/12 mo.
Verificado
14 criterios comparados · 30 fuentes · los datos de país aparecen marcados como heredados
us / mx · SettleMetric
01
Las diferencias clave
Las cifras clave cara a cara, con el lado más fuerte señalado. La puntuación global es decorativa; lo que importa es qué datos encajan contigo.
Resultado principal
Empate: 4 de 8 cada uno
Los Angeles
4
Mexico City
4
01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Los Angeles
$1741/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
$780/mo
INEGI — ENIGH 2024 (gasto corriente monetario), scaled to a single-person basket
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 may 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- ENIGH 2024 average household monetary current spending was 47,674 MXN/quarter ≈ 15,891 MXN/month across an average 3.4-person household. Removing housing rent, and taking the categories a single person still bears in full (food, utilities, transport, communications, personal care, leisure) at single-person rather than strict per-capita levels, gives ≈ 13,700 MXN/month for one person excluding rent. Converted at 17.559 MXN/USD (ECB EUR 20.0153 / USD 1.1399, 2026-07-02) ≈ $780/month. National average; Mexico City runs higher, smaller cities lower. See cost-breakdown for the itemised basket.
02Freelancer tax burden
Los Angeles
18,1%
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
2%
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Art. 113-E LISR, SAT)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme mx-resico at €60,000 = 1,200,918 MXN (ECB 20.0153 MXN/EUR, 2026-07-02). RESICO annual income in the $1M–$2.5M band → 2.0% of gross with no deductions → ISR 24,018.36 MXN, and no mandatory social contributions (IMSS is voluntary in Mexico). Total burden 24,018.36 / 1,200,918 = 2.0%. The general professional-activity regime would tax the same profile at roughly 20.7% (see mx-actividad-profesional), so RESICO is decisively better for a low-cost freelancer.
03Homicide rate
Los Angelesmejor
5,1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
25,6/100k
INEGI — Defunciones por homicidio 2024 (Reporte de resultados, 1-ago-2025)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- 33,241 homicide deaths registered in 2024, rate 25.6 per 100,000 (up from 24.9 in 2023). Highly uneven by state: Colima 123, Morelos 77, Baja California 65 at the top; Yucatán 3, Coahuila 4, Mexico City ~10 at the low end. The national figure masks large regional variation relevant to city choice.
04Climate comfort
Los Angeles
10/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Los Angeles Downtown/USC 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
12/12 mo
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals (Tacubaya WMO 76680)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Months with mean daily max 15–28 °C and precipitation < 150 mm. All 12 months qualify: max ranges 20.8–26.6 °C every month (Mexico City's high-altitude tropical climate has almost no seasonal temperature swing), and the wettest month (July, 133.2 mm) stays under the 150 mm threshold. = 12.
05Internet speed
Los Angelesmejor
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
18 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Mexico
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Median of the daily country median download values (download_MED) from M-Lab's public NDT statistics for Mexico, 2023 (the latest full year in M-Lab's published stats API; 2024+ files not yet available). Daily medians cluster tightly around 18 Mbps over hundreds of thousands of tests.
- Notas
- M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below Ookla-style marketing figures (Mexican fixed connections commonly sell 50–200 Mbps) — comparable only within this criterion. Fixed broadband quality varies widely: fibre is strong in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, weaker in smaller towns.
06English proficiency
Los Angelesmejor
Native
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Low
EF EPI 2025 — Mexico (score 440, rank 103/123, Low band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Mexico scores 440 and ranks 103rd, in EF's 'Low' band. English is workable in tourist zones, international business, and among younger urban professionals, but government offices, healthcare, and everyday services are conducted in Spanish; functional Spanish is effectively required for daily life.
07Private healthcare cost
Los Angeles
$8892/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 15 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
$1800/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Comprehensive 'gastos médicos mayores' plans (major-medical: hospitalisation, surgery, plus outpatient riders) from GNP, AXA México, Allianz and Mapfre run roughly $120–190 USD/month for a healthy adult under 35 → ≈$1,440–$2,280/year. Midpoint ≈ $1,800/year. Premiums are quoted individually (age, deductible, hospital network), so this is a curated market midpoint, not a public engine quote. Mexican medical inflation is high (est. ~15% for 2026), pushing premiums up 20–40% year on year.
- Notas
- Comprehensive (with-inpatient) basis per the data-quality lesson. Residents also have free access to public IMSS-Bienestar/IMSS care, but private cover is the norm for expats/freelancers who want private-hospital access. Deductibles and coinsurance apply on top of the premium.
08Air quality (PM2.5)
Los Angelesmejor
11,7 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
20 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Network-wide annual mean PM2.5 for the Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México in 2023 = 20 µg/m³ (stations with ≥65% data sufficiency), reported by the official CDMX government air-quality authority (SEDEMA, Dirección de Monitoreo Atmosférico) using U.S. EPA reference-method monitors. Per-station annual means ranged from 15 µg/m³ at Pedregal (southern CDMX) to 21 µg/m³ at Xalostoc (in México State). PM10 annual mean was 41 µg/m³.
- Notas
- About 4× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) and double the incoming Mexican NOM-025 annual limit of 10 µg/m³ (effective 2026). Highest concentrations occur in the dry-cold season (Nov–Feb) driven by thermal inversions and holiday fireworks; the rainy summer is much cleaner. Value is the metropolitan-area (ZMVM) network mean — no separate CDMX-proper city figure is published, but the southern CDMX stations run somewhat below the metro mean.
02
¿Qué ciudad encaja con tu plan?
Cada perspectiva pondera solo los datos que importan a ese plan y dice a qué lado favorece.
Informática remota / autónomo
Contrato o trabajo por cuenta propia en tecnología, facturando a clientes de fuera.
Los Angeles encaja mejor: 3 de 5
01Freelancer tax burden
Los Angeles
18,1%
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
2%
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Art. 113-E LISR, SAT)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme mx-resico at €60,000 = 1,200,918 MXN (ECB 20.0153 MXN/EUR, 2026-07-02). RESICO annual income in the $1M–$2.5M band → 2.0% of gross with no deductions → ISR 24,018.36 MXN, and no mandatory social contributions (IMSS is voluntary in Mexico). Total burden 24,018.36 / 1,200,918 = 2.0%. The general professional-activity regime would tax the same profile at roughly 20.7% (see mx-actividad-profesional), so RESICO is decisively better for a low-cost freelancer.
02Internet speed
Los Angelesmejor
85 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
18 Mbps
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Mexico
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Median of the daily country median download values (download_MED) from M-Lab's public NDT statistics for Mexico, 2023 (the latest full year in M-Lab's published stats API; 2024+ files not yet available). Daily medians cluster tightly around 18 Mbps over hundreds of thousands of tests.
- Notas
- M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below Ookla-style marketing figures (Mexican fixed connections commonly sell 50–200 Mbps) — comparable only within this criterion. Fixed broadband quality varies widely: fibre is strong in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, weaker in smaller towns.
03English proficiency
Los Angelesmejor
Native
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Low
EF EPI 2025 — Mexico (score 440, rank 103/123, Low band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Mexico scores 440 and ranks 103rd, in EF's 'Low' band. English is workable in tourist zones, international business, and among younger urban professionals, but government offices, healthcare, and everyday services are conducted in Spanish; functional Spanish is effectively required for daily life.
04Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Los Angeles
$1741/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
$780/mo
INEGI — ENIGH 2024 (gasto corriente monetario), scaled to a single-person basket
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 may 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- ENIGH 2024 average household monetary current spending was 47,674 MXN/quarter ≈ 15,891 MXN/month across an average 3.4-person household. Removing housing rent, and taking the categories a single person still bears in full (food, utilities, transport, communications, personal care, leisure) at single-person rather than strict per-capita levels, gives ≈ 13,700 MXN/month for one person excluding rent. Converted at 17.559 MXN/USD (ECB EUR 20.0153 / USD 1.1399, 2026-07-02) ≈ $780/month. National average; Mexico City runs higher, smaller cities lower. See cost-breakdown for the itemised basket.
05Domestic delivery quality
Los Angelesmejor
Excellent
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Good
Estafeta / FedEx México / Correos de México (MexPost) official service pages (composite)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Classified from carrier service/coverage pages: FedEx México, DHL, Estafeta and Redpack offer next-day delivery in major cities with standard real-time tracking; Correos de México/MexPost and Estafeta reach rural areas but 'zonas extendidas' incur reexpedición surcharges and slower delivery; OXXO/convenience-store pickup is widespread. Landed on 'good' (not 'excellent') because coverage is dense in metros but slower and pricier in the rural long tail, and there is no nationwide parcel-locker network on the European scale.
- Notas
- Next-day in major cities; slower and surcharged in hard-to-reach zones.
Familia
Mudarse con pareja e hijos en edad escolar.
Los Angeles encaja mejor: 3 de 5
01International schools
Los Angeles
sin datos verificados
Mexico City
19
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Deduplicated count of Mexico City metro schools accredited by/member of the qualifying bodies (IB, Cambridge, AEFE, German Auslandsschulwesen, US/College Board, CIS/COBIS). IB finder lists 17 IB World Schools in the CDMX metro (Greengates, Eton, The American School Foundation, Edron Academy, Westhill, Peterson, Olinca, Churchill, Winpenny, Instituto Thomas Jefferson ×2, Escuela Lomas Altas, Colegio Lomas Hill, Atid, Tomás Alva Edison, Schweizerschule, British American School). Added, not in the IB list: Lycée Franco-Mexicain (AEFE-homologated, aefe.gouv.fr) and Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt (German ZfA 'Excellent German School', 3 metro campuses counted as one institution). = 19.
- Notas
- ±2 uncertainty. The IB finder may include candidate (not-yet-authorised) schools; several IB schools also hold Cambridge/US accreditation but are counted once; Cambridge-only or CIS/COBIS-only schools not in the IB list may be undercounted. Count spans the wider CDMX metropolitan area (some campuses, e.g. Greengates and Colegio Alemán's Lomas Verdes site, sit in adjoining México State suburbs).
02Homicide rate
Los Angelesmejor
5,1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
25,6/100k
INEGI — Defunciones por homicidio 2024 (Reporte de resultados, 1-ago-2025)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- 33,241 homicide deaths registered in 2024, rate 25.6 per 100,000 (up from 24.9 in 2023). Highly uneven by state: Colima 123, Morelos 77, Baja California 65 at the top; Yucatán 3, Coahuila 4, Mexico City ~10 at the low end. The national figure masks large regional variation relevant to city choice.
03Private healthcare cost
Los Angeles
$8892/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 15 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
$1800/yr
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Comprehensive 'gastos médicos mayores' plans (major-medical: hospitalisation, surgery, plus outpatient riders) from GNP, AXA México, Allianz and Mapfre run roughly $120–190 USD/month for a healthy adult under 35 → ≈$1,440–$2,280/year. Midpoint ≈ $1,800/year. Premiums are quoted individually (age, deductible, hospital network), so this is a curated market midpoint, not a public engine quote. Mexican medical inflation is high (est. ~15% for 2026), pushing premiums up 20–40% year on year.
- Notas
- Comprehensive (with-inpatient) basis per the data-quality lesson. Residents also have free access to public IMSS-Bienestar/IMSS care, but private cover is the norm for expats/freelancers who want private-hospital access. Deductibles and coinsurance apply on top of the premium.
04Air quality (PM2.5)
Los Angelesmejor
11,7 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
20 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Network-wide annual mean PM2.5 for the Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México in 2023 = 20 µg/m³ (stations with ≥65% data sufficiency), reported by the official CDMX government air-quality authority (SEDEMA, Dirección de Monitoreo Atmosférico) using U.S. EPA reference-method monitors. Per-station annual means ranged from 15 µg/m³ at Pedregal (southern CDMX) to 21 µg/m³ at Xalostoc (in México State). PM10 annual mean was 41 µg/m³.
- Notas
- About 4× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) and double the incoming Mexican NOM-025 annual limit of 10 µg/m³ (effective 2026). Highest concentrations occur in the dry-cold season (Nov–Feb) driven by thermal inversions and holiday fireworks; the rainy summer is much cleaner. Value is the metropolitan-area (ZMVM) network mean — no separate CDMX-proper city figure is published, but the southern CDMX stations run somewhat below the metro mean.
05English proficiency
Los Angelesmejor
Native
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Low
EF EPI 2025 — Mexico (score 440, rank 103/123, Low band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Mexico scores 440 and ranks 103rd, in EF's 'Low' band. English is workable in tourist zones, international business, and among younger urban professionals, but government offices, healthcare, and everyday services are conducted in Spanish; functional Spanish is effectively required for daily life.
Dinero y cripto
Optimizar impuestos, banca y normas sobre cripto.
Muy reñido para este plan
01Crypto regulation
Los Angelesmejor
Legal regulated
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Restricted
Banco de México — Circular 4/2019 (Disposiciones aplicables a operaciones con activos virtuales)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 8 mar 2019
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Holding and trading crypto is legal for individuals and gains are taxed under ISR as enajenación de bienes. But virtual assets are not legal tender, and Banxico Circular 4/2019 bars banks and regulated fintechs from offering crypto services (custody, exchange, transmission) to the public; no institution has been authorised. Individuals buy/sell through unregulated exchanges that cannot hold client fiat. Classified 'restricted' because banking-channel access to crypto is prohibited, not merely regulated.
02Financial control level
Los Angeles
Moderate
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Moderate
SAT — declaración anual / obligations, and Banco de México FX regime (composite)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Composite: the peso floats freely and is fully convertible with no capital or currency controls (IMF AREAER classifies MXN as free-floating); non-residents can open Mexican bank accounts (requires RFC/CURP and proof of address, more friction than the EU). No FBAR-style personal foreign-account disclosure regime, though CRS applies via banks and Mexico joined the crypto CARF reporting from 2026. Cash caps: purchases in cash above ~$100,000–500,000 MXN trigger anti-money-laundering reporting by the counterparty (Ley Antilavado), and cash payments above certain limits are non-deductible. Rated 'moderate' rather than 'low' because of RFC-gated banking, mandatory e-invoicing (CFDI) capturing most income, and AML cash-reporting thresholds.
03Freelancer tax burden
Los Angeles
18,1%
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
2%
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Art. 113-E LISR, SAT)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme mx-resico at €60,000 = 1,200,918 MXN (ECB 20.0153 MXN/EUR, 2026-07-02). RESICO annual income in the $1M–$2.5M band → 2.0% of gross with no deductions → ISR 24,018.36 MXN, and no mandatory social contributions (IMSS is voluntary in Mexico). Total burden 24,018.36 / 1,200,918 = 2.0%. The general professional-activity regime would tax the same profile at roughly 20.7% (see mx-actividad-profesional), so RESICO is decisively better for a low-cost freelancer.
Vida tranquila
Priorizar la seguridad, el aire y una vida diaria sencilla.
Muy reñido para este plan
01Homicide rate
Los Angelesmejor
5,1/100k
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
25,6/100k
INEGI — Defunciones por homicidio 2024 (Reporte de resultados, 1-ago-2025)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- 33,241 homicide deaths registered in 2024, rate 25.6 per 100,000 (up from 24.9 in 2023). Highly uneven by state: Colima 123, Morelos 77, Baja California 65 at the top; Yucatán 3, Coahuila 4, Mexico City ~10 at the low end. The national figure masks large regional variation relevant to city choice.
02Air quality (PM2.5)
Los Angelesmejor
11,7 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
20 µg/m³
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Network-wide annual mean PM2.5 for the Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México in 2023 = 20 µg/m³ (stations with ≥65% data sufficiency), reported by the official CDMX government air-quality authority (SEDEMA, Dirección de Monitoreo Atmosférico) using U.S. EPA reference-method monitors. Per-station annual means ranged from 15 µg/m³ at Pedregal (southern CDMX) to 21 µg/m³ at Xalostoc (in México State). PM10 annual mean was 41 µg/m³.
- Notas
- About 4× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) and double the incoming Mexican NOM-025 annual limit of 10 µg/m³ (effective 2026). Highest concentrations occur in the dry-cold season (Nov–Feb) driven by thermal inversions and holiday fireworks; the rainy summer is much cleaner. Value is the metropolitan-area (ZMVM) network mean — no separate CDMX-proper city figure is published, but the southern CDMX stations run somewhat below the metro mean.
03Cost of living (single, excl. rent)
Los Angeles
$1741/mo
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
$780/mo
INEGI — ENIGH 2024 (gasto corriente monetario), scaled to a single-person basket
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 may 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- ENIGH 2024 average household monetary current spending was 47,674 MXN/quarter ≈ 15,891 MXN/month across an average 3.4-person household. Removing housing rent, and taking the categories a single person still bears in full (food, utilities, transport, communications, personal care, leisure) at single-person rather than strict per-capita levels, gives ≈ 13,700 MXN/month for one person excluding rent. Converted at 17.559 MXN/USD (ECB EUR 20.0153 / USD 1.1399, 2026-07-02) ≈ $780/month. National average; Mexico City runs higher, smaller cities lower. See cost-breakdown for the itemised basket.
04Climate comfort
Los Angeles
10/12 mo
SettleMetric — computed from the Los Angeles Downtown/USC 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
Mexico Citymejor
12/12 mo
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals (Tacubaya WMO 76680)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Months with mean daily max 15–28 °C and precipitation < 150 mm. All 12 months qualify: max ranges 20.8–26.6 °C every month (Mexico City's high-altitude tropical climate has almost no seasonal temperature swing), and the wettest month (July, 133.2 mm) stays under the 150 mm threshold. = 12.
03
La comparación completa
Abre cualquier dato para ver qué mide, cómo de reciente es y el rastro completo de fuentes de ambas ciudades.
01
Impuestos
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Freelancer tax burden% effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profileLos Angeles18,1Mexico Citymejor2
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· % effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profile· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Los Angeles
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Art. 113-E LISR, SAT)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Best eligible scheme mx-resico at €60,000 = 1,200,918 MXN (ECB 20.0153 MXN/EUR, 2026-07-02). RESICO annual income in the $1M–$2.5M band → 2.0% of gross with no deductions → ISR 24,018.36 MXN, and no mandatory social contributions (IMSS is voluntary in Mexico). Total burden 24,018.36 / 1,200,918 = 2.0%. The general professional-activity regime would tax the same profile at roughly 20.7% (see mx-actividad-profesional), so RESICO is decisively better for a low-cost freelancer.
02
Legalización
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Remote-work legalization easeLos AngelesShort stay onlyMexico CitymejorLong stay path
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 180 días
Los Angeles
U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Visa Waiver Program; 8 CFR 214.2(b) visitor admissions
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
SRE — Visa de residente temporal por solvencia económica (Consulado de México en España)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Mexico has no dedicated digital-nomad visa. The established long-stay route for remote workers is the temporary-resident visa (residente temporal) granted on proof of economic solvency — foreign income or savings qualify, and there is no minimum physical-presence rule. Renewable up to 4 years, then convertible to permanent residence. See legalization path mx-temporary-resident-solvency.
03
Coste de vida
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Cost of living (single, excl. rent)USD/month, single person, excluding rentLos Angeles1741Mexico Citymejor780
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· USD/month, single person, excluding rent· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Los Angeles
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
INEGI — ENIGH 2024 (gasto corriente monetario), scaled to a single-person basket
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 may 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- ENIGH 2024 average household monetary current spending was 47,674 MXN/quarter ≈ 15,891 MXN/month across an average 3.4-person household. Removing housing rent, and taking the categories a single person still bears in full (food, utilities, transport, communications, personal care, leisure) at single-person rather than strict per-capita levels, gives ≈ 13,700 MXN/month for one person excluding rent. Converted at 17.559 MXN/USD (ECB EUR 20.0153 / USD 1.1399, 2026-07-02) ≈ $780/month. National average; Mexico City runs higher, smaller cities lower. See cost-breakdown for the itemised basket.
Gasto mensual por categoría (sin alquiler)
Los Angeles
Mexico City
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
INEGI — ENIGH 2024 spending shares, scaled to a single-person basket
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 may 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- ENIGH 2024 monthly household spending shares (food/bev/tobacco 37.7%, transport & communications 19.5%, education & entertainment 9.6%, housing & services 9.1%, clothing, health etc.), rebased to a single-person no-rent basket and converted at 17.559 MXN/USD. Categories sum to the ≈$780/month cost-of-living aggregate. National average — a rough guide, not a survey of one-person households (INEGI does not headline a single-person series).
01Transport
Los Angeles
$462
Mexico Citymás barato
$130
02Food & non-alcoholic drinks
Los Angelesmás barato
$216
Mexico City
$300
03Recreation, culture & education
Los Angeles
$184
Mexico Citymás barato
$90
04Restaurants & eating out
Los Angeles
$137
Mexico Citymás barato
$80
05Health (out-of-pocket + insurance)
Los Angeles
$215
Mexico City
—
06Household goods, services & furnishings
Los Angeles
$181
Mexico City
—
07Utilities (electricity, gas, water, fuels)
Los Angeles
$164
Mexico City
—
08Personal care & clothing
Los Angeles
$103
Mexico City
—
09Utilities (electricity, gas, water)
Los Angeles
—
Mexico City
$70
10Personal care & household goods
Los Angeles
—
Mexico City
$45
11Miscellaneous
Los Angeles
$42
Mexico City
—
12Communications (mobile + internet)
Los Angeles
—
Mexico City
$40
13Alcohol & tobacco
Los Angeles
$35
Mexico City
—
14Health (out-of-pocket)
Los Angeles
—
Mexico City
$25
Total (sin alquiler)
Los Angeles$1739/mes
Mexico City$780/mes
04
Vivienda
Alquiler por tipo de vivienda
Alquiler de oferta: precio en el centro, con el de fuera del centro entre paréntesis ($/mes).
Los Angeles
Mexico City
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 21 may 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Inmuebles24 Índice de Venta & Renta — Reporte de mercado Ciudad de México, enero 2026
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- City-wide asking rent per m² from the Inmuebles24 CDMX index (Jan 2026: 329 MXN/m²/mo at the 65 m² 2BR reference; 299 MXN/m²/mo at 100 m² 3BR) applied to typical sizes (studio 32 m², 1BR 48 m², 2BR 65 m², 3BR 100 m²) for the city-wide-by-type base. Central vs outside split derived from the index's own per-alcaldía averages: center ×1.18 (mean of the core alcaldías Cuauhtémoc 28,373, Miguel Hidalgo 26,986, Benito Juárez 20,540 MXN/mo ÷ city avg 21,398), outside ×0.82 (mean of the residential ring: Álvaro Obregón, Coyoacán, Azcapotzalco, Iztacalco, Gustavo A. Madero). Converted at 17.559 MXN/USD (fx-rates 2026-07-02).
- Notas
- Both the by-room-type and the central/outside cells are DERIVED — no single Inmuebles24 table crosses room count with center-vs-outside. The per-m² rates, the 2BR/3BR references, and the per-alcaldía averages are directly published; apartment sizes and the size→per-m² interpolation are assumptions stated in the method. 'Center' = the core alcaldías (Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez, incl. Roma/Condesa/Polanco/Del Valle); 'outside' = the mid-tier residential ring, excluding the rural southern fringe (Milpa Alta, Tláhuac) which runs cheaper still.
01Estudio
Los Angeles
$2851$1611 fuera del centro
Mexico Citymás barato
$769$530 fuera del centro
021 dormitorio
Los Angeles
$3191$1804 fuera del centro
Mexico Citymás barato
$1110$765 fuera del centro
032 dormitorios
Los Angeles
$3979$2252 fuera del centro
Mexico Citymás barato
$1441$993 fuera del centro
043 dormitorios
Los Angeles
$5046$2856 fuera del centro
Mexico Citymás barato
$2020$1391 fuera del centro
05
Seguridad
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Homicide rateintentional homicides per 100,000/yearLos Angelesmejor5,1Mexico City25,6
Qué mide esto
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).
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· intentional homicides per 100,000/year· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Los Angeles
Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
INEGI — Defunciones por homicidio 2024 (Reporte de resultados, 1-ago-2025)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- 33,241 homicide deaths registered in 2024, rate 25.6 per 100,000 (up from 24.9 in 2023). Highly uneven by state: Colima 123, Morelos 77, Baja California 65 at the top; Yucatán 3, Coahuila 4, Mexico City ~10 at the low end. The national figure masks large regional variation relevant to city choice.
06
Clima
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Climate comfortpleasant months/yearLos Angeles10Mexico Citymejor12
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más alto, mejor· pleasant months/year· se vuelve a verificar cada 3650 días
Los Angeles
SettleMetric — computed from the Los Angeles Downtown/USC 1991–2020 NOAA normals
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
Mexico City
SettleMetric computation over climate-normals (Tacubaya WMO 76680)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2020
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Months with mean daily max 15–28 °C and precipitation < 150 mm. All 12 months qualify: max ranges 20.8–26.6 °C every month (Mexico City's high-altitude tropical climate has almost no seasonal temperature swing), and the wettest month (July, 133.2 mm) stays under the 150 mm threshold. = 12.
02+−Air quality (PM2.5)µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5Los Angelesmejor11,7Mexico City20
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· µg/m³, annual mean PM2.5· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Los Angeles
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2024
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Network-wide annual mean PM2.5 for the Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México in 2023 = 20 µg/m³ (stations with ≥65% data sufficiency), reported by the official CDMX government air-quality authority (SEDEMA, Dirección de Monitoreo Atmosférico) using U.S. EPA reference-method monitors. Per-station annual means ranged from 15 µg/m³ at Pedregal (southern CDMX) to 21 µg/m³ at Xalostoc (in México State). PM10 annual mean was 41 µg/m³.
- Notas
- About 4× the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³) and double the incoming Mexican NOM-025 annual limit of 10 µg/m³ (effective 2026). Highest concentrations occur in the dry-cold season (Nov–Feb) driven by thermal inversions and holiday fireworks; the rainy summer is much cleaner. Value is the metropolitan-area (ZMVM) network mean — no separate CDMX-proper city figure is published, but the southern CDMX stations run somewhat below the metro mean.
07
Sanidad
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Private healthcare costUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldLos Angeles8892Mexico Citymejor1800
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más bajo, mejor· USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Los Angeles
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 15 ene 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Comprehensive 'gastos médicos mayores' plans (major-medical: hospitalisation, surgery, plus outpatient riders) from GNP, AXA México, Allianz and Mapfre run roughly $120–190 USD/month for a healthy adult under 35 → ≈$1,440–$2,280/year. Midpoint ≈ $1,800/year. Premiums are quoted individually (age, deductible, hospital network), so this is a curated market midpoint, not a public engine quote. Mexican medical inflation is high (est. ~15% for 2026), pushing premiums up 20–40% year on year.
- Notas
- Comprehensive (with-inpatient) basis per the data-quality lesson. Residents also have free access to public IMSS-Bienestar/IMSS care, but private cover is the norm for expats/freelancers who want private-hospital access. Deductibles and coinsurance apply on top of the premium.
08
Dinero y cripto
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Crypto regulationLos AngelesmejorLegal regulatedMexico CityRestricted
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 180 días
Los Angeles
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Banco de México — Circular 4/2019 (Disposiciones aplicables a operaciones con activos virtuales)
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 8 mar 2019
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Holding and trading crypto is legal for individuals and gains are taxed under ISR as enajenación de bienes. But virtual assets are not legal tender, and Banxico Circular 4/2019 bars banks and regulated fintechs from offering crypto services (custody, exchange, transmission) to the public; no institution has been authorised. Individuals buy/sell through unregulated exchanges that cannot hold client fiat. Classified 'restricted' because banking-channel access to crypto is prohibited, not merely regulated.
02+−Financial control levelLos AngelesModerateMexico CityModerate
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Los Angeles
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
SAT — declaración anual / obligations, and Banco de México FX regime (composite)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Composite: the peso floats freely and is fully convertible with no capital or currency controls (IMF AREAER classifies MXN as free-floating); non-residents can open Mexican bank accounts (requires RFC/CURP and proof of address, more friction than the EU). No FBAR-style personal foreign-account disclosure regime, though CRS applies via banks and Mexico joined the crypto CARF reporting from 2026. Cash caps: purchases in cash above ~$100,000–500,000 MXN trigger anti-money-laundering reporting by the counterparty (Ley Antilavado), and cash payments above certain limits are non-deductible. Rated 'moderate' rather than 'low' because of RFC-gated banking, mandatory e-invoicing (CFDI) capturing most income, and AML cash-reporting thresholds.
09
Infraestructura
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−Domestic delivery qualityLos AngelesmejorExcellentMexico CityGood
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Los Angeles
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 ago 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
Estafeta / FedEx México / Correos de México (MexPost) official service pages (composite)
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Classified from carrier service/coverage pages: FedEx México, DHL, Estafeta and Redpack offer next-day delivery in major cities with standard real-time tracking; Correos de México/MexPost and Estafeta reach rural areas but 'zonas extendidas' incur reexpedición surcharges and slower delivery; OXXO/convenience-store pickup is widespread. Landed on 'good' (not 'excellent') because coverage is dense in metros but slower and pricier in the rural long tail, and there is no nationwide parcel-locker network on the European scale.
- Notas
- Next-day in major cities; slower and surcharged in hard-to-reach zones.
02+−International delivery easeLos AngelesSignificant frictionMexico CitySignificant friction
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Los Angeles
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 20 feb 2026
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
US Dept. of Commerce (trade.gov) — Mexico Customs Regulations (de minimis) & SAT RFC courier rule
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 15 oct 2024
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Major carriers (DHL, FedEx, UPS) deliver door-to-door, but import friction is real: de minimis is only USD $50 (duty- and VAT-free); USMCA-origin goods $50.01–$117 are duty-free but still bear 16% VAT; above $117 both duties and VAT apply. Since 2024-10-15 couriers require the consignee's RFC (Mexican tax ID) to use the simplified clearance procedure, and 2026 rules tightened low-value/textile imports. Customs holds and brokerage fees are common, so cross-border receiving is workable but bureaucratic.
03+−Internet speedMbps, median fixed downloadLos Angelesmejor84,9Mexico City18,2
Qué mide esto
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.
Cuanto más alto, mejor· Mbps, median fixed download· se vuelve a verificar cada 365 días
Los Angeles
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Método
- 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.
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Mexico
Datos abiertos
- Datos a fecha de
- 31 dic 2023
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Median of the daily country median download values (download_MED) from M-Lab's public NDT statistics for Mexico, 2023 (the latest full year in M-Lab's published stats API; 2024+ files not yet available). Daily medians cluster tightly around 18 Mbps over hundreds of thousands of tests.
- Notas
- M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below Ookla-style marketing figures (Mexican fixed connections commonly sell 50–200 Mbps) — comparable only within this criterion. Fixed broadband quality varies widely: fibre is strong in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, weaker in smaller towns.
10
Idioma
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−English proficiencyLos AngelesmejorNativeMexico CityLow
Qué mide esto
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.
Valorado por categoría· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
Los Angeles
Fuente oficial
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 mar 2025
- Verificado
- 1 ago 2026
- Notas
- 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.
Mexico City
EF EPI 2025 — Mexico (score 440, rank 103/123, Low band)
Estudio
- Datos a fecha de
- 1 nov 2025
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Notas
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Mexico scores 440 and ranks 103rd, in EF's 'Low' band. English is workable in tourist zones, international business, and among younger urban professionals, but government offices, healthcare, and everyday services are conducted in Spanish; functional Spanish is effectively required for daily life.
11
Educación
CriterioLos AngelesMexico City
01+−International schoolsaccredited international schools, countLos Angelessin datos verificadosMexico City19
Qué mide esto
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).
Cuanto más alto, mejor· accredited international schools, count· se vuelve a verificar cada 730 días
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.
Mexico City
Recopilado por SettleMetric
- Datos a fecha de
- 4 jul 2026
- Verificado
- 4 jul 2026
- Método
- Deduplicated count of Mexico City metro schools accredited by/member of the qualifying bodies (IB, Cambridge, AEFE, German Auslandsschulwesen, US/College Board, CIS/COBIS). IB finder lists 17 IB World Schools in the CDMX metro (Greengates, Eton, The American School Foundation, Edron Academy, Westhill, Peterson, Olinca, Churchill, Winpenny, Instituto Thomas Jefferson ×2, Escuela Lomas Altas, Colegio Lomas Hill, Atid, Tomás Alva Edison, Schweizerschule, British American School). Added, not in the IB list: Lycée Franco-Mexicain (AEFE-homologated, aefe.gouv.fr) and Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt (German ZfA 'Excellent German School', 3 metro campuses counted as one institution). = 19.
- Notas
- ±2 uncertainty. The IB finder may include candidate (not-yet-authorised) schools; several IB schools also hold Cambridge/US accreditation but are counted once; Cambridge-only or CIS/COBIS-only schools not in the IB list may be undercounted. Count spans the wider CDMX metropolitan area (some campuses, e.g. Greengates and Colegio Alemán's Lomas Verdes site, sit in adjoining México State suburbs).