Top 7 best countries for families in 2026

Families relocating abroad in 2026 are placing greater emphasis on schools, childcare, healthcare, safety and quality of life when choosing where to live.

The Global Relocation Index by Rumavi ranks countries across four areas: financial conditions, livability, safety and settling, reflecting factors that can influence the experience of families moving abroad.

Estonia ranks first among the seven countries, supported by strong scores for safety and settling. Taiwan and Czechia also perform strongly on safety, while Singapore records the highest settling score.

Malaysia stands out financially, recording the strongest financial score among the countries on the list.

The ranking highlights how family relocation decisions extend beyond cost and income. Access to public services, clean air, stability, safety and the ability to settle can all affect long-term family life.

The seven countries offer different advantages, depending on the priorities of families considering an international move in 2026.

Here are the seven countries that rank highest for families in 2026.

1. Estonia

Estonia ranks first with an overall score of 74.5. The country scores 66 in financial factors, 73 for livability, 80 for safety and 79 for settling.

Its safety and settling scores place it ahead of the other countries on the list. For families, these areas can affect how easily they adjust to a new country and how secure they feel in their daily lives.

Estonia’s position also reflects the balance between its financial conditions and the wider factors considered in the ranking.

2. Taiwan

Taiwan ranks second with a score of 72.4. It records 70 for financial factors, 73 for livability, 78 for safety and 68 for settling.

The country performs well across three of the four measures, with safety recording the highest score at 78.

For families, access to services, safety and day-to-day living conditions can be key considerations when deciding whether to move to another country.

3. Czechia

Czechia ranks third with an overall score of 71.9. The country scores 67 in financial factors, 70 in livability, 78 in safety and 74 in settling.

Its safety score is among the highest on the list, while its settling score shows that it also performs well in helping people establish themselves.

The combination puts Czechia among the countries families may consider when looking for a place to live, work and raise children.

4. Lithuania

Lithuania shares a score of 71.9 with Czechia and ranks fourth. It records 68 for financial factors, 73 for livability, 74 for safety and 71 for settling.

Its livability score is higher than that of Czechia, while its safety and settling scores remain above 70.

The figures indicate a balance across the four categories rather than reliance on one area alone.

5. Portugal

Portugal ranks fifth with a score of 71.3. It scores 65 for financial factors, 71 for livability, 74 for safety and 75 for settling.

The country records its highest score in settling, suggesting that the ability to establish a life after relocation is an important part of its position.

Portugal also records a safety score of 74 and a livability score of 71, placing both measures above 70.

6. Singapore

Singapore ranks sixth with a score of 71.2. It records 63 for financial factors, 63 for livability, 80 for safety and 83 for settling.

Its settling score is the highest among all seven countries, while its safety score matches Estonia’s at 80.

However, Singapore records the lowest financial and livability scores among the countries in the ranking, showing that its overall position is supported by its safety and settling results.

7. Malaysia

Malaysia has a score of 71.2. It records the highest financial score among the seven countries at 83, followed by 71 for livability, 62 for safety and 69 for settling.

Its financial score is also the highest in the entire ranking, while its safety score is the lowest among the seven countries.

Despite this difference between its category scores, Malaysia’s combined result places it among the countries ranked for families in 2026.

SiBAN calls for 12-month review of Nigeria’s virtual asset tax rules to track market impact

The Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SiBAN) has called for a 12-month review of Nigeria’s new virtual asset tax rules, saying the government should measure the policy by its impact on market activity and compliance.

The association said the review should be built into the guidelines issued by the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and should assess whether the tax regime is keeping crypto trading within licensed and visible channels.

Mela Claude Ake, SiBAN president said the government should track indicators such as the number of registered Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), trading volumes on licensed exchanges and the extent to which activity remains within the formal market.

The call comes as Nigeria seeks to expand non-oil revenue collection, with the NRS targeting N40.7 trillion in revenue in 2026.

SiBAN argues that a tax system that generates higher initial collections but pushes trading into informal peer-to-peer (P2P) channels could ultimately weaken the tax base and reduce regulatory visibility.

‘The point is not to tax virtual assets lightly as a matter of principle; it is to tax the right event, once, at a rate capable of withstanding competition from the informal market,’ Ake said.

The association is particularly concerned about the treatment of transactions under the current model, which it says can combine stamp duty, withholding tax and VAT on a single trade regardless of whether the trader makes a profit.

SiBAN said this could create a significant tax burden before investors have realised any gain. On a N1 million transaction, the association estimates that the combined burden could reach N64,250.

Ake said taxing transaction value rather than realised gains could have unintended consequences for Nigeria’s formal crypto market.

‘Taxing capital before any profit exists is not merely unfair, it is self-defeating,’ he said, arguing that high transaction costs could encourage users to bypass regulated exchanges.

SiBAN wants Nigeria to move toward a realised-gains model that taxes net profits after allowing traders to recover their costs. It also wants losses to be offset against gains and internal wallet transfers to be excluded from taxation.

Where the government insists on a transaction-based levy, the association proposed a single charge of between 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent on one side of a trade, replacing what it described as multiple layers of transaction taxes.

The association cited Kenya’s experience with a three percent tax on gross digital-asset transfers as a warning for Nigerian policymakers. It said the tax was eventually scrapped after concerns that activity was moving toward unregistered channels.

SiBAN also pointed to India’s treatment of crypto losses as another policy lesson, arguing that restrictions on loss offsets can reduce liquidity on domestic platforms.

For Nigeria, the association said the test of the new tax regime should therefore go beyond how much money it collects in its first year.

A 12-month review would give policymakers a chance to determine whether the rules are increasing formalisation, improving compliance and strengthening domestic exchanges, or instead pushing users toward less visible P2P markets, it posited.

The review should also allow the NRS to adjust tax rates and treatment based on actual market behaviour, rather than locking the industry into rules that could discourage participation.

SiBAN said its position was not against taxing virtual assets but aimed at ensuring that taxation supports, rather than undermines, the development of a regulated digital-asset market in Nigeria.

How M-Pesa trail settled friendship loan row

The small claims court has ordered a woman to refund her friend Sh995,100 borrowed to secure employment with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

The court also awarded Lucy Tanui Sh67,000 in costs and interest after Sharon Mutai failed to explain why she retained the money even though M-Pesa records proved she received the amount.

The dispute arose from cash transfers made between April and May 2025, when Ms Tanui sent Ms Mutai various amounts totalling Sh995,100. Ms Tanui said the money was to be refunded, but the borrower gave a different account of the transactions.

Ms Mutai told the court that no contract existed between them and that the transfers were repayments of a Sh1.4 million cash loan she had earlier given Ms Tanui in 2024. She said that the sums transferred by the claimant constituted repayments of that earlier advance by instalments.

She also alleged that any arrangement between them involved an attempt to procure or influence employment with the Teachers Service Commission for Ms Tanui’s dependant.

Ms Mutai argued that such an arrangement would have been illegal, void and unenforceable. She, however, did not produce an agreement, communication, payment instructions or other evidence showing that the money transferred by Ms Tanui was connected to securing, purchasing or influencing TSC employment.

The court found no evidence connecting the disputed transfers to a scheme to secure TSC employment.

‘No evidence whatsoever was tendered to support that allegation,’ the adjudicating magistrate said in the judgment on August 7, 2026.

The court said it had not been presented with ‘any agreement, communication, payment instructions or any other material’ showing that the two women had agreed to secure, purchase or improperly influence TSC employment.

The allegation therefore remained unsubstantiated, the magistrate ruled.

Ms Tanui had sued Ms Mutai in June 2026 seeking the refund, general damages for breach of contract, costs and interest.

She produced her M-Pesa statements showing the payments made to Ms Mutai on different dates. The court said the records ‘collectively confirm that a total sum of Sh995,100 was remitted to the respondent.’

Ms Mutai did not dispute receiving the money. Instead, she maintained that the transfers represented instalment repayments for the earlier Sh1.4 million cash advance.

But she produced no written agreement, acknowledgement, receipt or witness to support the alleged cash transaction.

The magistrate said that apart from Ms Mutai’s ‘bare assertions’, no documentary evidence or independent testimony proved that she had advanced Ms Tanui the money.

The court noted that Ms Mutai did not file a counterclaim for the alleged unpaid balance of Sh404,900.

‘If indeed she had advanced Sh1.4 million and had only recovered Sh995,100, one would reasonably expect her to pursue the outstanding balance,’ the court said.

That omission weakened Ms Mutai’s claim that the M-Pesa payments were repayments of an earlier loan, according to the judgment.

The court found that Ms Tanui had established the transfers while Ms Mutai had failed to provide a credible legal basis for retaining the money.

‘The evidential burden having shifted to the respondent, she failed to discharge it,’ the magistrate said.

Bangkok finds more houses crowded with ‘pink card’ holders

Thirteen households across nine districts in Bangkok have been found to have at least 16 migrant residents with pink ID cards registered at each address, prompting authorities to launch case-by-case investigations.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) reported the findings on Friday, after all 50 district offices reviewed irregular household registrations allegedly used by foreign nationals to obtain the 13-digit ID cards for foreigners that enable access to Thai public services.

According to the BMA, 16,634 individuals holding pink cards were listed in 10,066 registered households across the capital.

Most registered households showed normal living arrangements, the BMA said, but 13 irregular registrations were detected in nine unnamed districts. These were mostly factories, flats and rental houses, each listing more than 16 migrant residents.

The cases detected were based on information collected by district offices from registration records, used to verify the accuracy and detect irregularities in reported relocations, said Pol Gen Adis Ngamchitsuksri, an adviser to the Bangkok governor.

The next step will be for the BMA to assign a special task force on registration security, under the Department of Administration and Registration, to conduct in-depth inspections.

Each case will be reviewed individually, including the actual use of the houses, the number of real residents, the relationships among those listed in the registrations, and documents related to reported moves in and out.

The latest review followed the arrest on Aug 18 of seven suspects, including three district officials, after more than 1,400 migrant children were found registered at addresses in the Din Daeng Flats public-housing project. A total of 44 rooms listed at least 16 children each.

The case has also triggered a nationwide investigation into birth registrations of migrant children claimed to have Thai fathers and migrant mothers.

War weapons from Cambodia seized in Trat

A smuggling suspect has been arrested and two AK-47 rifles, more than 24,000 rounds of ammunition and other items smuggled from Cambodia seized at a pier in Laem Ngop district of Trat province.

The seizure was the result of a stepped-up operation by the Royal Thai Navy and Trat Marine Police to track a maritime smuggling network, said the navy spokesman, Rear Adm Parach Rattanachaiphan.

Officers inspected a suspicious target at the Direk pier in tambon Khlong Yai of Laem Ngop district at 7pm on Friday. They arrested a man and seized war weapons, ammunition and vehicles used for smuggling. Other members of the network managed to flee, said Rear Adm Parach.

The seized items included two AK-47 assault rifles, 102 AK-47 magazines, 23,640 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 765 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition, a speedboat and three vehicles.

A preliminary investigation found that the network used a speedboat to collect the goods from foreign nationals who delivered them at sea. The items had been transported from Cambodia before being brought back to the pier in Laem Ngop.

The suspect and all seized items were handed over to Laem Ngop police for legal proceedings. Authorities are also investigating the source of the weapons, their intended destination, and other people involved.

Rear Adm Parach said the arrest resulted from intelligence cooperation between the navy, Marine Police and security agencies, enabling officers to intercept a large quantity of weapons and ammunition before they reached their destination.

Flood-weary Nan braces for more rain on Sunday

Authorities are closely monitoring the Nan River basin as water levels begin to stabilise and recede in several areas, while preparing for more rain forecast to hit the flood-weary northern province on Sunday.

Officials have been closely tracking rainfall, water volumes and local conditions to ensure timely warnings and assistance for residents, deputy government spokesperson Lalida Persvivatana said on Saturday.

According to an assessment by the Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR), four districts in the upper Nan basin – Pua, Song Khwae, Chiang Klang and Thung Chang – will require close monitoring on Sunday.

The four districts could receive accumulated rainfall of 50 to 70 millimetres over 24 hours, said Ms Lalida.

Ground saturated

The forecast rainfall is not expected to be as heavy as earlier in the week, when up to 380mm of rain fell in some areas on Wednesday alone. However, soil in some areas remains saturated from earlier downpours, prompting authorities to maintain close monitoring, she said.

‘Although this spell of rain is not expected to be as heavy as the previous one, accumulated soil moisture will reduce the ground’s capacity to absorb additional rainfall, causing water to flow into waterways more quickly,’ she said.

‘The government has therefore prioritised advance preparations, particularly in foothill areas, near waterways and in low-lying areas, so residents can receive information and warnings quickly if conditions change.’

Ms Lalida stressed that despite improving conditions in many areas, the government was not letting its guard down, particularly with rain forecast in upstream areas on Sunday.

She urged residents to continue their daily activities as normal while monitoring updates from official agencies.

Authorities are also monitoring water flows from the upper basin affecting Tha Wang Pha, Muang Nan, Phu Phiang and Wiang Sa districts.

Nan has been the hardest-hit province after flash floods swept through Pua district before a huge volume of water flowed downstream and inundated Muang Nan district.

Floodwaters in the central commercial area of Muang Nan have now receded to near-normal levels, allowing authorities to shift their focus to recovery and cleaning homes, shops, roads and public areas.

4,000 people still cut off

In Pua district of Nan, more than 4,000 residents in 14 villages remained cut off from the outside world for a fourth consecutive day on Saturday following flash floods and landslides.

Drones were being used to deliver food and drinking water while work began to build a Bailey bridge, after the Fai Chao bridge in tambon Woranakhon was swept away by flash floods, leaving the communities isolated.

A special relief team from the Princess Pa Foundation under the Thai Red Cross Society, volunteers from the Prasat Boonsathan Foundation in Phitsanulok, Kubota’s disaster-response drone team and the Singha volunteers team, were stepping up relief operations in Pua on Saturday.

A Department of Highways construction team from Phichit was rushing to transport Bailey bridge components to the Doi Phu Kha area.

The bridge is expected to restore road access and allow relief supplies and assistance to reach villages that have been cut off.

Thai ice-cream brand for sale: Here’s the scoop

The founder of the Thai ice-cream brand Hawell’s is putting the business up for sale for 165 million baht, saying he is sticking to a long-held goal to enter the monkhood and renounce worldly life.

Siripong Akkarasriyuk, chairman of Hawell’s (Thailand) Co Ltd, made the announcement on Facebook on Friday, saying he is seeking a potential successor to take over the brand, and offering a referral fee of 5 million baht.

Hawell’s was a familiar sight in local shopping malls in the early 2000s before a number of factors caused the business to decline. Only one stand-alone branch remains today.

But Mr Siripong says he has developed a new expansion plan targeting annual sales of nearly 9 billion baht, and wants to find the right person to carry it out.

Mr Siripong, who founded Hawell’s in 1999, said in the post that over the past two years he had tried extensively to negotiate with malls to open branches, but was repeatedly told there was no space – even though vacant spots existed after other shops moved out.

‘No matter how many times we contacted them, the answer was always the same,’ he said.

Opening standalone stores, meanwhile, would require heavy investment. That left franchising as an option, but after careful consideration Mr Siripong concluded that could cause more problems and potentially do irreparable damage to the brand.

The first Hawell’s branch opened at Central Pinklao in December 1999. It met with a good response and within three years the brand had 22 branches.

Mr Siripong, who has had a passion for ice-cream since childhood and began his career as an ice-cream peddler, became a fixture on talk shows featuring Thai entrepreneurs. Hawell’s became known for its quality servings with lower prices and was the Thai ice-cream brand of the Y2K era.

However, difficulties arose when big-name rivals began negotiating exclusive-use clauses with malls to block direct competitors from opening branches. This forced nearly all Hawell’s branches to close, with Central Pinklao the last to shut down in 2014.

In 2023, the name Hawell’s returned with the launch of its first standalone model in Bang Bua Thong, Nonthaburi, which remains in operation.

The struggle to expand the business, however, is only one of the reasons Mr Siripong cites when explaining his decision to put Hawell’s on the block.

‘The most important reason is that my family and I have only two years left’ – the timeframe he has set to renounce worldly life.

Mr Siripong is also the author of Success Derived from the Buddha, published in 2016, and has been giving talks on Buddhism for several years. He has been planning the next stage of his life for more than 15 years.

Within two years, he plans to secure land to establish a forest retreat for meditation practice before ordaining as a monk and fully dedicating himself to spiritual solitude. He intends to sever all contact, including with his wife and daughter, with ‘the ultimate goal of attaining enlightenment as an arahant’.

Because two years will not be enough time to execute the expansion plan – nationwide and worldwide – that he has drawn up, finding someone with passion and capability to continue the brand is a better option.

The total value of the assets to be handed over to the successor is 165 million baht. These include seven rai of land in Bang Bua Thong; an office building and factory with machinery and factory licences; a Hawell’s Ice Cream and Fast Food shop; and the Hawell’s trademark.

Other assets comprise ‘all the know-how accumulated over 37 years and all ice-cream recipes, both soft-serve and hard ice cream’, Mr Siripong said.

Under his expansion plan, if funding is secured within the first two years, annual sales could reach 8.8 billion baht – combining revenue from 300 soft-serve shops nationwide, 100 hard ice-cream shops, and 5,000 automatic cup dispensers.

Full details are contained in a ‘project plan’ that Mr Siripong will also hand over to the successor.

‘Hawell’s is not just a business I built. It has been a part of my life and my family’s life,’ he said, thanking customers for their long-standing support.

‘Even if I choose to leave worldly life behind … I still want to see Hawell’s move forward.’

Dorm demolition a safety issue, says Chiang Mai University

Chiang Mai University has defended the controversial decision to demolish the historic Ang Kaew Dormitory, saying structural assessments revealed safety concerns, while stressing its historical value will be preserved.

The university was responding on Saturday to calls from architects to reconsider demolishing the dorm, which opened six decades ago at the country’s first regional university.

The building is regarded as a prime example of a bold, progressive milestone in the country’s architectural history. It was designed by the late brutalist and modernist architect Amorn Srivongse, with engineering led by the late Arun Chaiseri, known as the father of modern structural engineering in Thailand.

News of the demolition emerged last week, sparking public concern, including from academics, who said the decision would erase another valuable example of Thai architecture.

They have urged the university to reconsider and proposed conservation options or adaptive reuse strategies.

The university issued a clarification letter, which said it acknowledged the dorm’s 60-year history and its architectural and cultural significance.

However, structural assessments revealed safety concerns about reusing the building, the university said. ‘To do so, it would need to meet legal standards for structural integrity, fire safety, utilities and earthquake resistance.’

A review committee decided to demolish the building while preserving its historical and architectural value in other forms, such as documentation and records for future generations, it said.

The statement added that an auction price of 209,587 baht did not represent the sale of the building itself, but only the right to carry out demolition under conditions set by the university, with proceeds to be transferred to the Treasury Department.

The university stressed that it continues to conserve and use six other historic buildings of its faculties of social sciences, engineering and science designed by the legendary architect.

Veteran activist apologises after sexual assault claims surface

Veteran activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk has apologised to a woman who accused him of sexual assault, acknowledging he misunderstood her consent and promising not to repeat such acts.

Somyot was responding on Facebook on Saturday, addressing the woman, identified as ‘A’ in an interview published by SocialGaze, an independent media outlet built on the Medium platform.

‘I apologise to A for misunderstanding and thinking that A had given consent, but that was not the case as A described,’ he wrote.

A was 25 at the time, while he was 64, he said, and they lived together for about two years. He described their relationship as agreeable during the first year before they grew estranged in the second.

Somyot said A wanted their relationship to remain private and he had also kept it a secret. He said disagreements became more frequent and intense before the relationship ended.

‘I apologise to A once again. I apologise to everyone upset by this mistake and accept all consequences,’ he wrote.

Somyot is a veteran labour and political activist who has been involved in the democracy movement in Thailand for decades. He was an editor of Voice of Taksin magazine and was imprisoned for lese-majeste under Section 112 of the Criminal Code before resuming his activism after release.

The apology came after A described her experience in an interview published online by SocialGaze, alleging that Somyot sexually assaulted her during trips in 2024.

A said she first met Somyot through political activities and initially regarded him as a respected senior activist and mentor. She described how he became closely involved in her personal and professional life, including arranging work, accompanying her to events and providing advice.

She said Somyot increasingly used intimate language, including calling her ‘darling’ and sending messages saying he missed her. She also said other activists had warned her about his physical contact with people.

She alleged that during a trip in June 2024, Somyot touched her while she was asleep and forced her to have sex without her consent. She said she confronted him afterwards but was told that he could not remember what had happened.

She said a similar incident occurred during a later trip to Chiang Mai, despite her repeatedly saying she did not want sexual contact.

She said she initially remained silent because of shame, fear of being questioned and concerns about having no evidence. She also described financial, personal and professional dependence that made speaking publicly more difficult.

The allegations prompted widespread criticism among democracy activists and on social media.

Sunai Phasuk, an adviser for Human Rights Watch, identified Somyot in an X post, citing accounts from people familiar with the allegations before Somyot posted his apology.

Pipob Udomittipong, a columnist and independent academic, asked Somyot whether he would address other allegations of sexual harassment involving activists.

Somyot replied: ‘Yes. I apologise in every case and promise not to do this again.’

Nominee raids extend to three sites in Pattaya

Officials have raided three locations in Pattaya and seized computers and documents linked to a suspected nominee scheme concealing foreign ownership of land and businesses.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Interior Ministry and police officers armed with warrants conducted searches to gather evidence concerning suspected violations of the Foreign Business Act 1999.

Deputy Interior Minister Worasit Liangprasit said the operation on Friday was an extension of earlier investigations on Koh Phangan and Koh Samui in Surat Thani and in Phuket.

Evidence gathered during those investigations indicated that Cosy Beach View Co Ltd in Chon Buri may have circumvented the law, leading investigators to seek warrants to search three locations.

At KT International Law and Business in Pattaya, officers found evidence indicating Thai employees of the law firm may have been listed as shareholders in Cosy Beach View on behalf of foreign beneficial owners. Documents were seized for further examination.

A second search at Shilat Avenue Pattaya Hotel found the hotel had hired the law firm to handle its registration and had listed law firm employees among its founders. A person with a background in an aluminium sales business in Samut Sakhon was also listed as a shareholder.

The third search targeted the Cosy Beach View condominium in Bang Lamung district, where an Israeli national was a company director. Its shareholding structure indicated Thai nationals had been used as nominees since 2010, investigators said.

The seized computers, documents and other materials will undergo forensic examination.

Justice Minister Rutthapon Naowarat said Thailand remained open to legitimate foreign investment but would take legal action against any Thai or foreign individuals found to have used nominee arrangements to circumvent the law.