Happy Nations #6: Luxembourg

We take a break from Scandanavia and visit the little country of Luxembourg.

Here is how Luxembourg compares to the United States in each of the six factors for Happiness:

GDP: 2.209 v 1.982
Social Support: 1.155 v 1.182
Healthy Life Expectancy: 0.790 v 0.628
Freedom to Make Life Choices: 0.700 v 0.574
Generosity: 0.120 v 0.220
Perceptions of Corruption: 0.388 v 0.177

It is not very generous, but a high GDP is not a tremendous start.

Other Scoring Systems

I assume that only 650,000 people excluded Luxembourg from the US News rankings. They perform pretty well in other rankings, however.

Health Care

Luxembourg ranks #51 in Global Health Security.

Healthcare in Luxembourg is based on three fundamental principles: compulsory health insurance, free choice of healthcare providers for patients, and mandatory compliance of providers with the set fixed costs for the services rendered.

Employed citizens in Luxembourg make health insurance contributions via payments to Luxembourg’s social security system. Coverage includes most treatment by your general practitioner or specialists, laboratory tests, prescriptions, and hospitalization.

All residents of Luxembourg have access to the state healthcare system. However, both employed and self-employed workers must make social security contributions to access healthcare services.

Climate

The capital of Luxembourg is … Luxembourg.

Luxembourg City is similar to St. Louis but about 10-15 degrees cooler in the summer and a narrower band of warmer weather in the winter.

Cost of Living

Luxembourg, in general, is less expensive to live in than the United States.

However, comparing Saint Louis, MO, to Luxembourg, we see that it will cost 19% more to live in Luxembourg—a significant increase.

Language

Luxembourg has three official languages: French and German, and the national language is Luxembourgish.

Although 80% of the country also speaks English, it seems like a situation where learning French would be more appropriate.

Acceptance of Others

Nearly half of Luxembourg’s population is of foreign origin. Most foreigners are from Portugal and then France.

The country does have a positive trend in LGBT+ acceptance compared to other EU states.

It was challenging to find first-hand results on how immigrants are treated in this relatively small country.

Moving Feasibility

Luxembourg does have an extensive immigration website.

Within 90 days of their arrival, third-country nationals (i.e., USA) who have obtained a temporary authorization to stay and who wish to stay longer than 90 days in Luxembourg must apply for a residence permit corresponding to the category of their permission to stay (employee, self-employed, trainee, etc.) with the Immigration Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

Self-employment is an immigration option; you can apply for permanent residence after five years of staying.

Conclusion

Being ranked the fifth worst country for ex-pats is not great. However, much of this ranking is due to the cost of living.

I never considered Luxembourg an option, and the language could be a barrier to entry. This country requires further review.