It’s a common refrain for Americans to say they’ll leave the country if their presidential candidate is bested by an opponent. Sometimes that’s followed with a promise to move to Canada specifically, but let’s face it—a republican who isn’t happy in the United States will be miserable in Canada.

These are top issues for republican voters:

• Low taxes
• Immigration restrictions
• Abortion restrictions
• Free-market capitalism
• Restrictions on labor unions
• Gun rights
• Death penalty
• Defense spending
• Law and order
• Traditional gender roles
• Restrictions on protections for LGBTQIA+
• Restrictions on drug use
• Religious protections
• Restrictions on affirmative action
• Anti-welfare
• Non-universal healthcare
• Opposition to climate policy
• Vaccines not required

If you’re a conservative voter considering a move abroad, these countries are best on those issues.

Low taxes: United Arab Emirates

The UAE has no income tax. Unless you renounce your American citizenship, you’ll still continue to file taxes, but you’ll only have to pay taxes on what you earn over the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which is currently $120,000.

Other income tax-free spots:

• Antigua & Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bermuda
• British Virgin Islands
• Brunei
• Cayman Islands
• Kuwait
• Monaco
• Oman
• Qatar
• Somalia
• St. Kitts & Nevis
• Western Sahara (a disputed territory in Northwest Africa)

Immigration restrictions: North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Island is populated by the the Sentinelese who have fully isolated themselves from outside populations by force. Unfortunately, that also means you.

Other countries that don’t allow immigration:

• Bhutan
• North Korea
• Vatican City

Abortion restrictions: Republic of the Congo

Since SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, states have been enacting their own abortion laws with differing rules in cases of rape, gestational limits, and reasons for ending the pregnancy. In Republic of the Congo, however, there are no such rules. All abortion is illegal.

Here are other countries where abortion is prohibited:

• Angola
• Bahamas
• Dominican Republic
• DR Congo
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Gabon
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Iraq
• Laos
• Madagascar
• Mauritania
• Nicaragua
• Philippines
• Senegal
• Suriname

Free-market capitalism: Singapore

The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal create an annual ranking called the Index of Economic Freedom to track countries with the highest levels of free-market capitalism, and Singapore took the top spot in 2022. The U.S. nabbed 25th place.

Here’s the rest of the top 10:

• Switzerland
• Ireland
• New Zealand
• Luxembourg
• Taiwan
• Estonia
• Netherlands
• Finland
• Denmark

Restrictions on labor unions: Bangladesh

The Global Rights Index measures worker rights in different countries and has released their top-10 list of countries where workers are most oppressed, including Bangladesh, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Guatemala, Myanmar, Philippines, Tunisia, and Turkey.

The Index uses a scales of 1-5 to rank worker protections, with 5 being the worst. The United States received a 4.

In addition to those countries in the top 10, these countries received a 5 for having the least worker protections, including the right to unionize:

• Afghanistan
• Algeria
• Bahrain
• Brazil
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Central African Republic
• China
• Colombia
• Eritrea
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Hong-Kong (China)
• India
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Korea (Republic of)
• Kuwait
• Laos
• Libya
• Malaysia
• Pakistan
• Palestine
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Syria
• Thailand
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen
• Zimbabwe

Gun rights: Yemen

In addition to the United States, these countries also guarantee the right to keep and bear arms:

• Czech Republic
• Guatemala
• Mexico
• Philippines
• Switzerland
• Ukraine
• Yemen

However, in practice all of those countries except Yemen restrict gun use in ways the United States doesn’t, whether through permitting, availability of purchase, or certain types of guns being outlawed.

Aside from these countries, the areas with the most permissive gun use are Idlib Governorate in Syria and the Gaza Strip.

Death penalty: China

Amnesty International tracks executions and death sentences around the world and notes that capital punishment in the U.S. has generally fallen. This is how many executions were confirmed in 2022. No numbers are known for Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria, or Vietnam, and they’re also unknown for China, although they estimate executions to be in the 1000s.

• China 1000s
• Iran 576+
• Saudi Arabia 196
• Egypt 24
• USA 18
• Iraq 11+
• Singapore 11
• Kuwait 7
• Somalia 6+

Defense spending: Qatar

No one can touch the amount the United States spends on defense—about three times that of the 2nd place spender, China. Visual Capitalist gives the following top spenders as a percent of the world’s military budget:

• U.S. $877B 39%
• China $292B 13%
• Russia $86B 4%
• India $81B 4%
• Saudi Arabia $75B 3%
• UK $69B 3%
• Germany $56B 3%
• France $53B 2%
• South Korea $46B 2%
• Japan $46B 2%

As for military spending as a percentage of GDP, these countries rank the highest:

• Ukraine (at war) 9%
• Saudi Arabia 8%
• Oman 8%
• Qatar 6%
• Algeria 6%
• Kuwait 6%
• Israel 5%
• Jordan 5%
• Armenia 4%
• Azerbaijan 5%

Finally, these countries spend the most per capita, the true measure of what you can contribute to defense spending:

• Qatar $4,564
• Israel $2,535
• Saudi Arabia $1,928
• Singapore $1,837
• Kuwait $1,815
• U.S. $1,815
• Norway $1,438
• Oman $1,254
• Australia $1,131
• Brunei $959

Law and order: North Korea

Republicans are long known as the party of law and order, and these countries have the toughest punishments for law-breaking citizens.

• North Korea
• Saudi Arabia
• China
• Iran
• Philippines
• Vietnam
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Indonesia
• United Arab Emirates

Source: WatchMojo

Traditional gender roles: Afghanistan

In the United States, a new trend called trad wife refers to young women who harken back to the more traditional gender roles for women of the 1950s, like not working outside the home, being solely responsible for domestic tasks like cooking and cleaning, and wearing modest clothing.

These 10 countries have the widest gender gap, according to the Global Gender Gap Index 2023 rankings.

• Afghanistan
• Chad
• Algeria
• Iran
• Pakistan
• Mali
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Oman
• Benin
• Guinea

Restrictions on protections for LGBTQIA+: Iran

Republicans feel that gay people are dangerous to children and have sought to ban gay events that could be attended by children, like pride parades and drag queen story times. In addition, states like Florida and Texas have removed books about gay people from libraries and prevented teachers from talking about gay families. These are countries where same sex relationships are prohibited.

• Afghanistan
• Algeria
• Antigua & Barbuda
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Bhutan
• Brunei
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Chad
• Comoros
• Cook Islands
• Dominica
• Egypt
• Eritrea
• Eswatini
• Ethiopia
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Grenada
• Guinea
• Guyana
• Iran
• Jamaica
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Liberia
• Libya
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Morocco
• Myanmar
• Namibia
• Nigeria
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Palestine
• Papua New Guinea
• Qatar
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and The Grenadines
• Samoa
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tanzania
• Togo
• Tonga
• Tunisia
• Turkmenistan
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• United Arab Emirates
• Uzbekistan
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Restrictions on drug use: Indonesia

Several republican politicians have floated using the U.S. military to fight Mexican drug cartels, one source of Chinese fentanyl reaching the states.

Here are eight countries where drug traffickers are regularly sentenced to death:

• China
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Malaysia
• North Korea
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• Vietnam

Religious protections: Vatican City

Some republicans are evangelical Christians or devout Catholics and often name religious protections as a major priority. Some benefits they seek are tax exemptions and funding for religious schools and the freedom to not sell products or services to certain groups of people.

A theocracy is a system of government where leaders rule in the name of God. This is a current list of theocracies:

• Afghanistan
• Iran
• Mauritania
• Saudi Arabia
• Vatican City
• Yemen

Restrictions on affirmative action: Serbia

In 2023, the conservative SCOTUS ended the role of affirmative action in the college application process. Some republican governors are seeking to outlaw any efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in hiring practices.

U.S. News says these 10 countries do the least to create systems of racial equality:

• Serbia
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Iran
• Israel
• Myanmar
• Untied Arab Emirates
• Russia
• El Salvador
• Sri Lanka

Anti-welfare: Democratic Republic of the Congo

American voters often denounce welfare as socialism. Socialism refers to an economic system where workers own the means of production, i.e. the business or factory they work in.

The presence of a social safety net or social welfare, where people pay into programs according to their ability that’s paid out to people according to their need, is different from socialism. It’s more accurate to call it a welfare state.

Most welfare states are actually democracies, including the United States.

If you’d like to move to a country with less reliance on welfare, these countries have the least social welfare for citizens:

• Afghanistan
• Angola
• Bangladesh
• Benin
• Bhutan
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Comoros
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gambia
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Haiti
• Kiribati
• Lao People’s Dem. Republic
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mozambique
• Myanmar
• Nepal
• Niger
• Rwanda
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• United Republic of Tanzania
• Yemen
• Zambia

We recommend DRC for least welfare because it provides the least of the most important social program: food.

Non-universal healthcare: Ethiopia

The Affordable Care Act was the United States’ first foray into universally available healthcare that’s also adjusted for income. However, the Obamacare marketplace doesn’t reach the rank of universal healthcare or socialized medicine.

Here are other countries that offer only a non-universal insurance system:

• Bangladesh
• Burundi
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Ethiopia
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Nigeria
• Paraguay
• United Arab Emirates (some emirates)
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Yemen

Opposition to climate policy: India

Most republicans oppose climate policy, especially as it curtails business freedoms. The United States is the second-largest source of carbon emissions, and here’s the full list:

• China 10,065 (million tons of CO2 released)
• United States 5,416
• India 2,654
• Russia 1,711
• Japan 1,162
• Germany 759
• Iran 720
• South Korea 659
• Saudi Arabia 621
• Indonesia 615

The U.S. emits the 13th-highest amount of CO2 per capita. Here’s the top 10 along with their metric tons per capita:

• Qatar 35.6
• Bahrain 26.7
• Kuwait 25
• Trinidad & Tobago 23.7
• Brunei 23.5
• United Arab Emirates 21.8
• New Caledonia (French territory) 19.1
• Saudi Arabia 18.7
• Oman 18
• Australia 15.1

Vaccines not required: Burundi

Sixty-eight percent of Americans received at least two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 80% received at least one dose. These countries have the 10 lowest reported vaccination rates for a single dose:

• Burundi .3%
• Yemen 3.5%
• Haiti 3.6%
• Papua New Guinea 4.2%
• Madagascar 8.6%
• Republic of the Congo 13%
• Democratic Republic of the Congo 13%
• Gabon 14%
• Cameroon 15%
• Senegal 16%

All Around Best: Russia

There’s no perfect country out there for anyone. Very few countries embody all of the policies that you would want. However, Russia intends to try. The country plans to launch a new village for Americans and Canadian migrants who are seeking a conservative-minded new home for idealogical reasons.

One promise of the village is a reversal of gender freedom.

Here’s Why Americans Want to Leave the U.S.

The Expatsi Test is the first stop for many Americans who are thinking of expatriating, and the test asks them why they’re making the move. Respondents can choose all answers that apply as well as write in responses.

➤ Here’s Why Americans Want to Leave the U.S.

The 10 Countries with the Most Immigrants

According to the World Migration Report, the vast majority of people never emigrate from their home countries. There are currently only 281 million migrants worldwide, making up 3.6% of the population, but that number is growing as people and jobs become more mobile and tech makes moving easier.

➤ The 10 Countries with the Most Immigrants

The 20 Best Countries for Americans To Move To, Based on Data

The Expatsi Test is an assessment tool for Americans who want to leave the United States. Based on 37,546 respondents in 2023, here are the top 20 countries for American emigrants.

➤ The 20 Best Countries for Americans To Move To, Based on Data