TripZillaEver wanted to live the life abroad as an expat? Well, the destination can make or break your expat experience.
The recent Expat Insider survey conducted by InterNations provides a glimpse into the best – and worst – cities for expats in 2017. More than 12,500 respondents living in 188 countries or territories rated 43 different factors concerning the cities they were living in, and four indices were drawn out: Quality of Urban Living, Getting Settled, Urban Work Life, and Finance & Housing.
Based on this extensive study, here are the best 20 cities for expats in 2017:
1. Manama, Bahrain
2. Prague, Czech Republic
3. Madrid, Spain
4. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
5. Amsterdam, Netherlands
6. Barcelona, Spain
7. Johannesburg, South Africa
8. Bangkok, Thailand
9. Basel, Switzerland
10. Frankfurt, Germany
11. Mexico City, Mexico
12. Muscat, Oman
13. Budapest, Hungary
14. Auckland, New Zealand
15. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
16. Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
17. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
18. Berlin, Germany
19. The Hague, Netherlands
20. Hamburg, Germany
Prague | Image credit: Mustafa Bastaki
Coming up top on this list is a city that’s not often talked about: Manama. The capital of Bahrain scored well in most indices. Respondents shared that settling in and finding friends are easy, and it’s not difficult to live in Bahrain without speaking Arabic. On top of that, the locals in Bahrain are welcoming towards foreign residents.
Prague
Madrid
Coming up next on the list is Prague, a city that offers an excellent work-life balance in an affordable and exciting environment, followed by Madrid, where the climate is superb and there are plenty of things to do.
Way at the bottom of this list are Nigeria’s largest city Lagos, Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah and quite surprisingly, the French capital Paris. Apparently, it’s hard to get settled in Paris – 43% of respondents considered the locals as unfriendly towards foreign residents and 71% found it difficult to afford housing in Paris.
There are some parallels in this list when compared to the HSBC Expat Explorer Survey which reveals the best countries to live, work and raise children. In particular, Bahrain, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Germany made it among the top on both lists. On the flipside, the world’s best expat destination according to the Expat Explorer survey – Singapore – is not found among the best places for expats in the Expat Insider survey even though it is ranked #9 on the list of top expat destinations.
