Copenhagen, where the metro never closes and the lease is the hard part

Getting set up: International House Copenhagen is where newcomers to the city register for a CPR number, the personal ID you'll need for nearly everything from a bank account to a doctor. You register once you have an address and plan to stay more than three months, and its services are free.

Healthcare: Registering puts you in the public system and assigns you a family doctor. Visits to that doctor and care at public hospitals are free. Dental care, glasses and contact lenses aren't covered, and prescriptions are only partly subsidized. The yellow health insurance card arrives by mail about two to three weeks after you register. Once you have MitID, the Sundhedskortet app works as a digital version.

LGBTQ+ life: Denmark created the world's first registered partnerships for same-sex couples, and the first couple signed at Copenhagen City Hall in October 1989. Same-sex marriage followed in 2012. Copenhagen hosted WorldPride and EuroGames together in 2021, runs one of the world's oldest LGBTQ+ film festivals, and still has Centralhjørnet, a bar dating from 1917 that became openly gay in the 1950s. Denmark's official website is candid that LGBTQ+ people still face discrimination; the country tightened its laws against anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes and hate speech in 2022.

Black Americans: Copenhagen has a long Black American thread. Jazz saxophonist Ben Webster lived here, and a University of Wisconsin researcher has traced the African American writers, performers and educators who came through in the 20th century. Day to day, community takes more effort. A Black American student who studied here wrote that the lack of community was the hardest part, and that spending time in Nørrebro, the city's most diverse neighborhood, helped. ADDR, a nonprofit that brings together African associations in Denmark, holds events in the city, and UN City has hosted Black History Month panels on life in Copenhagen for its African and Afro-descendant staff. We didn't find a group specifically for Black Americans.

Schools: Copenhagen International School teaches all three IB programs in English for ages 3 to 18. The International School of Hellerup, just north of the city, offers the IB for ages 3 to 19. The European School Copenhagen in Vesterbro is public and tuition-free, with English, Danish and French sections.

Remote work: Home internet runs about $45 a month. Denmark is six hours ahead of New York for most of the year, so a 9 a.m. call in New York lands at 3 p.m. in Copenhagen.

Limited mobility: Public transit is in good shape for wheelchair users, with a few gaps. Every metro station has an elevator or lift, and every S-train station has an elevator or step-free access; wait at the front car and the driver will put out a ramp. City buses have a manual ramp at the middle doors, so you'll need someone to help you board. Regional trains, including the airport line, need assistance booked with DSB more than 12 hours ahead. Harbor buses are wheelchair accessible, and taxis should take a folding wheelchair at no charge.

Retiring here: Retirees will like the public healthcare and a city that works without a car, but Denmark offers no residence permit for retirees or for non-EU citizens living on their own savings. In practice, an American retiree can usually move here only as the partner of a Danish or EU citizen, or of someone with a Danish residence permit. Start with family reunification for Denmark, read our Denmark moving guide, or compare countries with a real retiree route in our retirement visa hub.