Around 80% of Americans believe that learning a few words of the local language matters before they travel abroad. Only 58% of those Americans actually go so far as to learn some words. That twenty-two-point gap is the basis of Preply’s report on language anxiety and travel, supplemented by visuals to support the data on this anxiety.

The report opens on this contradiction between belief and action and sharpens the data. It shows that 40% of travelers admit to cramming language lessons at the airport or on the plane. Only 25% begin practicing the language of their destination months ahead of time. 32% side-step the problem entirely by choosing destinations where English is the dominant language or prevalent enough to carry travelers through.

Two ranked charts are the center of the report and comparing their results offers eye-opening details. The first chart shows that in 2026, Italy topped the wish list of American travel destinations. Australia, Ireland, the UK, and France followed.

Click below to zoom.

The second chart ranked where Americans would consider living. Australia and the UK tie at 20% of the answers, and Canada follows closely at 19%. Three of the top five travel destinations are largely English-speaking, and the relocation list you’ll note was entirely English-speaking.

Japan demonstrates this split dramatically. 18% of Americans would like to visit Japan, but only 10% would consider living there. Comfort clearly wins out over desire when it comes to relocation.

The demographic section shows even more interesting trends. Gen Z is nearly three times as likely as Boomers to want to visit Japan (24.4% versus 8.6%). They’re also more than twice as likely to consider living there (13.4% versus 5.3%). Ireland runs the opposite direction, with 26.2% of Boomers wishing to visit and only 9.8% of Gen Z. This is the biggest generational gap in the survey.

The pattern suggests that Boomers gravitate toward English-speaking destinations, while Gen Z showed stronger interest in places like Japan, Korea, Brazil, Colombia, and Thailand. Gender splits emerged too, with women favoring Italy, Ireland, and Greece, and men dreaming of Japan at 24% versus women’s 14%.

A horizontal bar graph ranks the barriers to visiting non-English-speaking destinations. 37% of Americans assume the native language is too difficult to learn. 35% believe English is understood well enough to get by without learning. 33% of respondents said they’re bad at learning languages, 32% cite lacking the time to learn, and 31% fear offending a native speaker by mistake. When ranking language intimidation by country, China led at 37%, Japan followed at 34%, then Korea at 24%, and Thailand at 13%.

A graphic on language faux pas showed that 35% of Americans point to menu items rather than attempting pronunciation, 23% speak louder and slower, and 17% buy American fast food for familiarity—only 15% attempt to mimic the local accent, which the Preply team gently discouraged.

The big takeaway seems to be that 45% of Americans would travel more if they spoke another language.

Moving into a first apartment is a rite of passage, but the math behind making it a reality is becoming a bigger obstacle. The metros with the strongest job markets also have the steepest living costs, and over the past few years, rent in these areas has climbed faster than paychecks. Cheap rent isn’t the only solution, though. Thin wages and flat hiring shut young people out of many cities.

Rove Lab’s new analysis identifies the cities in the middle ground with the most to offer young people establishing their lives. The study examined the 100 most populous U.S. metro areas and scored each one on 10 different metrics grouped into three weighted categories.

Click below to zoom.

Financial affordability was the most important category, carrying 60% of the weight. This category covers average annual wage, wage growth, median rent and utility costs, rent-to-income ratio, and cost of living relative to the national average. Cost of living alone received 20% of the weight, the heaviest single metric in the study. Opportunity and access accounted for 24% and included employment growth, number of residents between 22 and 34, and amount of rental vacancy. The final 16% went to entertainment and dining, tracking the number of arts and recreation venues and restaurants and bars per 100,000 residents. Each metric was standardized, scored, and weighted into a final number out of 100.

The winning city was Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas, with a score of 74.24. This isn’t an obvious winner until you look at the numbers. Wages increased by 20.5% from 2022 to 2025, with the average wage at $77,165 and a cost of living that’s 8.65% below the national average. This combination creates a rent-to-income ratio of 19%, leaving young people with money to save, potentially for the elusive dream of homeownership. Fortune 500 companies, Walmart, J.B. Hunt, and Tyson, have a home in the area and likely explain wage strength.

Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos followed with a 73.93 score, driven by a thriving tech sector that’s seen 8.7% employment growth, and the area offers 30,000 vacant rental units for newcomers. Des Moines, Baton Rouge, and Nashville round out the top five.

A few cities earned high rankings thanks to low housing costs. Pittsburgh was seventh overall with a rent-to-income ratio of 17.6%. Wichita, ranked ninth, has low rent and utilities and a low cost of living that’s 11.05% below average. Toledo, number 25 on the list, has the cheapest housing of all cities on the list, with an average of $949 a month.

The most surprising cities on the list are Californian. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara ranks 21st, and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont lands 24th, despite costs of living well above the national average. Salaries do the heavy lifting, averaging $208,877 and $146,433, respectively. This pulls down San Jose’s rent-to-income ratio to 16.2%, the lowest on the list.

Student Choice has published the 2026 updated version of its study, ranking the most popular college degrees by return on investment after five years in the workforce. The team’s premise is timely as they examine a hot topic: the cost of higher education. The average cost of college now exceeds $43,000 per year, so entering the workforce with these student loans became a high-stakes game. The analysis pairs the top 25 majors in 2026, based on a previous Student Choice study, with earnings data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate how much a graduate earns in their first five years relative to their four-year tuition investment. They illustrated their findings by ranking 20 degree types compared to 40 common occupations.

Click below to zoom.

The team used a simple methodology. The average cost of college is $43,098 per year for a total investment of $172,392 for four years, with ROI calculated as median wages earned over five years divided by the four-year college cost. Majors that require advanced degrees like physical therapy, veterinary medicine, physician assistant, dentistry, and pharmacy were excluded from the ROI comparison even though these majors rank in the top 25.

Aviation tops the rankings chart, claiming the leading spot by a wide margin because of its astounding 574.3% ROI after five years, boosted by the median annual wage of $198,000. The field’s popularity is likely due to high pay and a looming pilot shortage as veteran airline workers retire. Engineering and computer science tied for second place at 290% each with median wages of $100,000 a year.

Healthcare and quantitative fields round out the upper tier. Nursing ranks fourth with an ROI of 272.6%, followed by math at 249.4% and accounting at 237.8%. Business, political science, architecture, and biology all tie for eighth at 217.5%, based on a $75,000 median wage. Education and social sciences sit near the bottom of the list at 159.5%, and fine arts at the bottom at 145%.

The study’s most helpful section might be the table that shows how career choice within a major can dramatically outperform the degree’s baseline. Aviation graduates who became airline pilots, copilots, or flight engineers reached a 652.7% return on a median wage of $226,600. Computer and information systems managers hit 496.5%, financial managers reached 469%, and public relations and fundraising managers reached 385.4%. Even lower-ranked majors can have exceptions. For example, fine arts majors who become art directors have a 322.1% return with a median salary of $111,040. Math majors working as actuaries earn 364.8%.

Overall, though, this study shows us that getting a degree pays off. Even accounting for student debt, the data suggests that degrees can double or triple the initial investment within five years. While most people will work for about four decades after student life, the returns will continue to compound. There is a growing preference for specialized, career-focused degrees with clear pathways into established professions so students can enjoy the ROIs we see here.