The Best And Worst Cities For Healthcare In 2024 | William Russell (2024)

If you’re planning to move abroad in 2024, it’s important to think about your healthcare. You’ll want to be sure your new home city is equipped with the latest, high-quality healthcare infrastructure and that you have international health insurance to give you access to the best healthcare services on offer.

You may have already read our guide to the best countries in the world for healthcare, and our run-down of the worst countries for healthcare. Now, to help narrow your search even further, we’ve ranked the five best cities for medical care worldwide, and the five worst cities.

In this article

The best and worst cities for healthcare worldwide in 2024

We’ve used data from Numbeo’s 2023 mid-year index of healthcare quality for major cities worldwide. Numbeo calculates their figures based on self-reported feedback from citizens of those cities, and is based on an amalgamation of scores assessing:

• Overall quality of the local healthcare system
• Numbers of healthcare professionals
• Quality of healthcare professionals
• Quality of medical equipment
• Cost

1/ Taipei, Taiwan

Congratulations to the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, which grabs the top spot on our list of the world’s best cities for healthcare in 2024. This accolade will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Taiwanese healthcare system, which has for a long time been considered one of the best-performing worldwide.

Among the many things we could say to recommend the Taipei healthcare system, it has incredibly short waiting times (indeed, many patients find that they will be seen immediately) and fantastic accessibility. This could be down to the fact Taipei boasts an incredible 76.6 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

Patients in Taiwan also benefit from quick access to any hospital or GP, with costs covered under Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, which offers comprehensive coverage, including dentistry and elderly care, at a low cost. Better still, these state-funded healthcare services are readily available to expats, too.

In summary, there’s no shortage of platitudes we could heap on Taipei, which tops the leaderboards in many health categories. Better still, we’ve also ranked it as the safest city in the world, and one of the friendliest cities too.

2/ Seoul, South Korea

Staying in East Asia for the second best city in the world for healthcare, we head to Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

South Korea dominates the leaderboards in the health category for developed OECD countries, having the highest number of hospital beds (12.8 per 1,000 inhabitants), the second-lowest rate of obesity (36.5% of the population) and one of the highest average life expectancies worldwide.

All of this is testament to the country’s exceptional track record when it comes to medical technology. South Korea is fourth in the world for MRI machines per capita and seventh for CT scanners, and has a growing number of doctors and nurses per capita. Living in the capital city, Seoul, you’ll find it incredibly easy to access the best treatments – and, better yet, your health insurance contributions will be paid for by your South Korean employer.

Watch this space: while it’s already number two in the world, Seoul’s healthcare sector is still improving, and it may not be long before it takes the number one spot. Until then, rest assured that you’ll be in safe hands while living in South Korea.

Did you know?

South Korea is one of the best countries to study abroad

3/ The Hague, Netherlands

While you may have expected to see Amsterdam, the administrative capital of the Netherlands on this list, it is actually the other Dutch capital that has been named one of the best cities for healthcare.

Then again, considering the staggering number of pharmaceutical, medical technology and life sciences organisations that call The Hague their home, perhaps it should come as no surprise. With big names like Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Bayer on their doorsteps, The Hague’s five world-class hospitals are never more than a hop-and-a-skip away from the latest technology.

The Hague also benefits from being the political capital of the Netherlands, a small country that punches way above its weight in terms of healthcare statistics. The Dutch are the sixth-biggest spenders in the OECD on healthcare, spending US$6,729 per capita. They also boast of having the sixth-shortest average hospital stay, at just 5.2 days. And, they have the sixth-lowest rate of obesity, too. We’ve even ranked it as one of the best countries in the world for mental health.

While it may be small, The Hague sets a fantastic example to other cities worldwide when it comes to great quality healthcare.

4/ Valencia, Spain

If you’re a regular reader of the William Russell blog, you won’t be surprised to find Spain on this list. This year, we named it the healthiest country in the world, a testament to the country’s strong focus on sports and leisure, and its globally-renowned Mediterranean diet.

But of all the Spanish cities that hit the right marks, it is Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city, that takes the gong. Nicknamed ‘the City of Running’, Valencians have some of the healthiest lifestyles in one of the healthiest countries in the world – indeed, it was named Money’s healthiest city in the world for 2022.

A big part of the reason for Valencia’s excellent healthcare system is the Valencia Health System Integrated Database (VID), one of the most advanced and comprehensive health databases in any city worldwide. With a thorough data-gathering mechanism, coupled with intuitive predictive modelling systems, the VID is capable of recognising the healthcare needs of its local population ahead of time, and is even capable of recognising rare and unusual patterns. This not only means Valencians are more likely to be diagnosed earlier, it also helps to keep healthcare costs down across the city.

And if Valencians ever do need the hospital? Well then they’ll find internationally-renowned hospitals such as La Fe and the IVO, one of the world’s best oncology centres, just down the road.

5/ Madrid, Spain

This time it’s the capital city Madrid that gives Spain its second spot in the top five cities for healthcare.

Not to be outdone by its southerly neighbour, Madrid boasts the most efficient healthcare system in Europe and tops the leaderboards across Spain for a number of quality of life indicators. Among the many metrics to recommend Madrid are that it has the lowest mortality rate in Spain (696.7 deaths per 100,000 people, including the lowest rates of death for both tumours and cardiovascular diseases), the highest life expectancy in Spain at 84.6 years, and one of the best-ranked hospitals in the world in the form of Hospital Universitario La Paz.

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The top 20 cities in the world for healthcare in 2024

Source: Numbeo Quality of Life Index by City 2023 Mid-Year

1/ Caracas, Venezuela

Underpinned by spiralling inflation and deepening rates of poverty, Venezuela is facing a dire situation as its public healthcare system nears the brink of collapse.

The extent of the crisis is hard to overstate. The lack of availability of even basic medicines and vaccines has led to a resurgence of rare communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, measles and diphtheria, while rates of malaria have increased over 900% since 2007, meaning Venezuela now accounts for more than 50% of all malaria cases in South America.

These diseases have caused infant mortality to skyrocket, with 29 in every 1,000 children passing away before the age of five, representing an increase of 40% in the last decade alone. Maternity care has also collapsed, with maternal mortality having doubled in the same time period.

Experts have called the situation in Venezuela a humanitarian crisis, and have focused the spotlight particularly on the capital city of Caracas, where a lack of clean water is further exacerbating the situation. As such, any expats intending to relocate to Caracas should invest in high-quality international health insurance that includes medical evacuation cover, which will allow them to choose high-quality treatment in a local private hospital or, where resources are absent, to travel to a neighbouring country for treatment.

2/ Dhaka, Bangladesh

As millions of Bangladeshis rush to seek new opportunities in the country’s metropolitan areas, Dhaka has become one of the fastest-growing cities on earth. Already standing at 23 million, the population of Dhaka is growing exponentially at a rate of around 3% per year, and is expected to reach over 30 million by 2035.

This rapid influx to Dhaka has pushed many incoming citizens to slums on the city’s outskirts, where they find a lack of adequate sanitation, clean water and medical facilities. The dirty air and rivers create the ideal breeding grounds for diseases to spread, and this is causing a healthcare crisis of unprecedented proportions. As many as 77% of people in Dhaka have been forced to seek healthcare from the private sector, as the public sector healthcare nears the brink of collapse.

Dengue is a particularly serious concern in Dhaka. The number of cases shot up by around 800% between 2018–2019, and remains high with an ever-increasing fatality rate. The spread of dengue also opens the door to other vector-borne illnesses, such as malaria and chikungunya, to spread unimpeded during rainy seasons.

If you are thinking of living in Dhaka as an expat, it is highly recommended to take out fully comprehensive private medical insurance before moving. This will ensure you will have access to the highest-quality private medical facilities, as well as essential prescriptions including anti-malarial drugs.

3/ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brazil has historically faced major challenges in the healthcare arena. It ranks 125th out of 190 countries in the WHO’s ranking of healthcare systems and has the fifth-lowest life expectancy in the OECD.

There are many reasons why Brazil is still struggling, including the country’s slow move towards digitisation of healthcare records, its failure to invest in preventative care and – perhaps most prevalent of all – inequality.

This is where the story moves to Rio de Janeiro, a city of two halves. On the one hand, Rio is a glamorous beachfront resort city; on the other hand, it is a sprawling metropolis of ‘favelas’, poverty-stricken slum developments. Healthcare infrastructure in Rio’s wealthier districts is of a decent quality and rapidly improving (indeed, the healthcare budget has risen from 8.3% to 10% of GDP since 2010). In the favelas, however, it is constantly on the brink of collapse.

Up-to-date statistics are hard to come by for the healthcare situation in Rio’s favelas, but historic data has shown that the infant mortality rate in one favela was as high as 54.8 per 1,000 births in 2011 – 10 times higher than in one of Rio’s more wealthier suburbs, where it was around 4.3 per 1,000.

As with many other slums around the world, Rio suffers from a lack of quality sanitation and clean water, which accelerates the spread of disease. But, unlike other slums, Rio has a particularly hyper-local issue with violent crime, which leads to a significant rate of injuries, which in turn causes many long-term health complications.

As an expat moving to Rio, you will be able to take part in Brazil’s state-funded healthcare system. But in order to ensure you can always access the highest-quality facilities, it’s worth looking into international health insurance. You might also want to read our guide on how to protect your personal safety when living abroad.

4/ Cairo, Egypt

Despite Cairo’s staggering economic development over recent decades, the city’s healthcare infrastructure has fallen by the wayside, which has sadly placed it amongst the worst in the world for major cities.

After decades of under-funding, Egypt is consistently the lowest-performing country in the Arab world for a number of key health metrics, having one of the highest rates of deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease, and one of the shortest life expectancies. We’ve also named it the most stressed city in the world, highlighting the issue of poor mental health in the city too.

It’s not all bad, though. Cairo, and Egypt in general, has come on leaps and bounds compared to where it was in the 20th century. For instance, infant mortality today is 13.2 per 1,000 births, compared to 210 per 1,000 births in the 1960s. Average life expectancy is 71.1, compared to 58 in the 1980s. Cairo also has a great number of private hospitals, which is a huge advantage for any expat intending to move to Egypt.

Cairo may not sit on this list for much longer. The winds of positive change are blowing, and healthcare in Egypt is improving rapidly. But it still has a long way to go, and until then, any expat intending to move to Cairo is advised to take out private medical insurance to ensure they will have access to high-quality treatment.

5/ Lagos, Nigeria

As another of the world’s fastest-growing cities, Lagos in Nigeria is experiencing many of the same problems as other rapidly-expanding metropoles. Huge swathes of inward migration has rocked the city with an acute health crisis, which is made worse by the fact Nigeria as a whole is in the midst of a humanitarian health crisis.

According to UNICEF, Nigeria is severely lacking in the fields of maternal, neonatal and infant healthcare. Infant mortality is very high, at 70.59 per 1,000 births.

Transmissible diseases in particular are a big problem in Lagos, especially as Nigeria is lagging behind other countries when it comes to vaccination rates (for instance, only 20% of the country is vaccinated against tuberculosis). This has created a situation where diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea are able to thrive.

Another issue that has affected Lagos in recent years is that many doctors have gone on strike due to unpaid wages. A crisis in healthcare leadership has led to widespread dissatisfaction among healthcare professionals, which has caused many highly-skilled doctors and nurses to desert the sector.

There is some hope for Lagos. Having its own autonomous government, it demonstrated during the recent Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks that it is capable of coordinating an effective emergency response.

But there is a long way to go to fix the dire situation in Nigeria’s largest city, and until that happens, expats living in Nigeria are advised to seek private health insurance to help them get access to high-quality medical care from the private healthcare sector. Read our guide to international health insurance in Nigeria here.

The 20 worst-ranked cities in the world for healthcare in 2024

Source: Numbeo Quality of Life Index by City 2023 Mid-Year

Health insurance designed especially for expats

Thinking of moving to a new city in 2024? Make sure you’ve taken out international health insurance.

At William Russell, we have over 30 years’ experience helping expats like you to get the best deal on their health insurance when moving to a new country. Our policies give you access to an extensive network of over 40,000 medical facilities worldwide, meaning you’ll always have access to the best quality medical care.

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