For the third year in a row, Expat Insider — one of the largest expat surveys worldwide — offers an in-depth analysis of everyday expat life in more than 60 countries across the globe. More than 14,000 respondents representing 174 nationalities and 191 countries or territories took part and had their say on moving, living, and working abroad.
The survey covers a wide range of topics, including basic facts about demographic data and the moving process. It focuses on participants’ happiness with a variety of factors related to their country of residence and personal life abroad. Needless to say, we don’t only address traditional expats. Our participants’ backgrounds and their reasons for moving are as multi-faceted as the globe itself!
Ranking and Reports
Are you curious about where expats enjoy the best work-life balance? Which countries are great, or less than great, for raising children abroad? Or where expats can make new friends easily?
Our country rankings list the best (and worst) among 67 destinations across the globe, focusing on essential topics: quality of life, ease of settling in, working abroad, family life, and personal finance. We also compare the most popular destinations for expat women vs. men.
This year’s survey report doesn’t focus on gender, though. With a view to the increasingly digitalized and globalized nature of work, we are going for a closer examination of the Working Abroad Index in 2016 and all the factors that play into it. After all, 35% of our respondents cite a career-related reason as their main motivation for relocating.
For the country ranking, survey participants were asked to rate 43 different aspects of life abroad on a scale of one to seven. The rating process emphasized the respondents’ personal satisfaction with these aspects and considered both emotional topics such as the friendliness of the local population as well as more factual aspects (e.g. affordability of healthcare) with equal weight.
The respondents’ ratings of the individual factors were then bundled in various combinations for a total of 16 subcategories, and their mean values used to draw up five topical indices. These five indices, as well as the responses to the question: “how satisfied are you with life abroad in general?”, were then averaged in order to rank the 67 countries above.