What we use, where it comes from, and how we turn raw numbers into the scores you see on each destination page.
Each score combines several indicators into a single composite, weighted using a system we developed in-house. We don't publish the exact weights because there isn't a single "correct" way to combine them. A country with strong safety statistics can still feel unsafe in specific neighbourhoods. Average affordability across a country tells you very little about a single beach town within it.
Our weights reflect common short-term travel priorities: safety and affordability carry more weight than secondary factors like press freedom or recycling infrastructure. Reasonable people would weight things differently, and that's a fair argument. This isn't a definitive ranking. It's a quick, usable snapshot.
Some countries have less complete data than others. Where a dataset is missing or inconsistent for a particular destination, the score should be read as directional, not exact.
The safety score draws from established peace, crime, and travel-risk indices, plus the current US and UK government travel advisory levels. Advisories are pulled automatically when those agencies update their guidance. All inputs feed into our in-house weighting.
| Indicator | Dataset | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Global Peace Index | Global Peace Index | Institute for Economics and Peace |
| Women, Peace & Security | WPS Index | Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security |
| LGBTQ safety | LGBTQ Travel Safety Index | Asher & Lyric Fergusson |
| Road traffic deaths | Road Traffic Death Rate | World Health Organization (WHO) |
| Homicide rate | Intentional Homicide Rate | UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) |
| Natural disaster risk | World Risk Index | Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft / IFHV, Ruhr University Bochum |
| Crime in-house | Sourced and maintained in-house | Various |
| US & UK advisories | Travel advisories | US State Department / UK FCDO |
Affordability blends published cost-of-living indicators with our own pricing data for things travellers actually buy.
| Indicator | Dataset | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Price Level Index | Price Level Index | World Bank |
| GDP per capita | GDP per capita (nominal), used as a broad proxy for local purchasing power | IMF / World Bank / United Nations |
| Price of Big Mac in-house | Average local price | Various |
| Hotel cost in-house | 3-star, per night | Various |
| Rent in-house | 1-bed, city centre, per month | Various |
| Gym membership in-house | Monthly cost | Various |
| Local prices in-house | Beer, eggs, chicken, coffee, meal for one, and other everyday items | Various |
Quality of life signals come from country-level indices that measure how a place treats its own residents. They're a useful baseline, but a national score doesn't always reflect the day-to-day experience in any one city.
| Indicator | Dataset | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Happiness | World Happiness Report | Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) |
| Income equality | Gini Index | World Bank |
| Corruption | Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) | Transparency International |
| Gender equality | Gender Inequality Index | UN Development Programme (UNDP) |
| Press freedom | World Press Freedom Index | Reporters Without Borders (RSF) |
| Internet speed | Speedtest Global Index | Ookla |
Sustainability covers environmental and infrastructure signals. Several headline metrics come from established institutional datasets; the more granular, on-the-ground signals (single-use plastics, drinking water, recycling) are tracked in-house with the source noted next to the metric on each destination page.
| Indicator | Dataset | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| CO2 emissions per capita | EDGAR Global GHG Emissions | European Commission Joint Research Centre (EDGAR, 2023) |
| Protected land area | Terrestrial Protected Areas | World Bank |
| Renewable electricity | Global Electricity Review | Ember (2023) |
| Air quality | World Air Quality Report | IQAir (2023) |
| Waste recovery rate | Environmental Performance Index | Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (EPI 2024) |
| Clean water access | Safely managed drinking water | WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) |
| Plastic bag ban in-house | Whether single-use plastic bags are banned or restricted | Various |
| Tap water safe to drink in-house | General guidance on whether tap water is considered safe for visitors | Various |
| Recycling infrastructure in-house | Availability and use of public recycling | Various |
The "best time to visit" score is calculated in-house from three inputs: weather, crowd levels, and currency timing.
| Input | What it measures | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Weather in-house | Temperature, rainfall, humidity, and rain days by month, normalised against the destination's own best and worst months | All months |
| Crowd levels in-house | Relative visitor volume by month, drawn from tourism board data and in-house research | All months |
| Currency timing | Where today's exchange rate sits within the past year's range. Higher means stronger buying power for visitors right now | Current month only |
All datasets listed here are publicly available, and we credit the original publisher for every indicator. Our use is editorial: we reference these datasets to inform travellers, with full attribution, and we don't redistribute raw data. If you publish any dataset listed here and have a concern about how we're using it, get in touch and we'll look into it.
The composite scores, weighting methodology, and presentation on RoamFX are original work produced by us. You're welcome to reference our scores in your own work, provided you credit RoamFX (roamfx.com) as the source. Reproducing our scoring system at scale for commercial purposes without prior written permission isn't permitted.
Want to use our data in a project? Get in touch with us. We're generally happy to discuss it.
Pick a destination and see how the data adds up.