Taiwan triumphs in affordable medical care, personal safety, and personal finance. Expats in Austria are enthusiastic about the quality of the environment there. Luxembourg is the top expat destination when it comes to working abroad or job security. Finland is the place to be for a satisfying family life. And it doesn’t get any better than Mexico when it comes down to the ease of finding local friends.



Malte Zeeck, Founder and co-CEO of InterNations.

These are some of the fascinating findings of the InterNations’ survey Expat Insider – one of the largest expat surveys worldwide – which offers an in-depth analysis of everyday expat life in more than 60 countries across the globe. The results of the 188-page report are combed from the feedback of more than 14,272 respondents representing 174 nationalities and living in 191 countries or overseas territories who took part in the survey and “had their say on moving, living, and working abroad.”
InterNations’ third such survey, which attempts to show what moves expats around the globe, 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. It’s not just the traditional expats who have participated in this exercise, insists InterNations, but a wide-ranging lot whose backgrounds and reasons for moving “are as multi-faceted as the globe itself.”
So what could be the most challenging part about putting together such an extensive survey on expat life? “I would like to think that we have by now established quite a bit of a routine in the third year of the Expat Insider survey,” Malte Zeeck, Founder and co-CEO of InterNations, told Community. “Nonetheless, the greatest challenge definitely lies in co-ordinating the different teams and departments here at the InterNations head office, which are all involved in conducting the survey, analysing the data, and publishing the results. In 2016, we have handled nearly all of these steps without any support of service providers.” 
Usually, extensive surveys such as Expat Insider are often outsourced to communication agencies, which focus on this kind of research, Zeeck pointed out. “However, we have managed to transfer the entire project in-house within just three years. This has been a big step for InterNations. After all, we are the world’s largest network and information site for people who live and work abroad: we have always put great effort into creating an environment for people to connect with each other, but we would like to further strengthen the information aspect, too, so we are quite proud of the Expat Insider survey,” he said.
Five topical indices form the backbone of the survey’s discoveries – Quality of Life (leisure options, personal happiness, travel and transport, health and well-being, safety and security), Ease of Settling In (feeling welcome, friendliness, finding friends, language), Working Abroad (job and career, work-life balance, job security), Family Life (availability/costs of childcare and education, quality of education, family well-being), and Personal Finance. 
The top 10 expat destinations listed by the survey are Taiwan, Malta, Ecuador, Mexico, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Australia, Austria, Luxembourg, and Czech Republic. Whereas Kuwait, Greece, Nigeria, Brazil and Saudi Arabia are part of the bottom 10. About Taiwan topping the charts, the survey says, “In addition to claiming 1st place out of 67 countries in the overall ranking, it is in the top 10 for every individual index! Taiwan holds first place in the Quality of Life and Personal Finance Indices, impressing with the quality and affordability of its healthcare and the enviable financial situation of expats living there.” 
“The Asian Tiger scores second place in the Working Abroad Index,” the report continues. “Over one-third of expats in Taiwan (34%) are completely satisfied with their jobs, more than double the global average of 16%. Expats are similarly enthusiastic about their work-life balance (30%) and job security (34%).” In fact, Taiwan has ousted the winner of 2014 and 2015, Ecuador. About Malta coming in second place out of 67 expat destinations, the report says, “The popular tourist hotspot offers plenty of leisure opportunities and the best-rated climate. Under the Maltese sun, it’s also very easy to make friends.”
A long line of parameters are factored in while assessing the destinations. About work-life balance, for instance, New Zealand, Denmark and Luxembourg drew the most satisfied votes while Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Japan drew the least satisfied ones. The shortest work weeks are in Denmark (39 hours), France, Finland, Canada, Cyprus, and Ireland (all around 41 hours), and the longest work weeks are in Tanzania, Uganda (both slightly more than 50 hours), Nigeria, and Romania (both around 49 hours).
A quick summary of the exhaustive report reads somewhat like this: The Quality of Life Index is headed by overall winner Taiwan, and with Japan, another East Asian country ranks third. The second place, however, belongs to Austria, due to excellent scores for travel and transport, health and well-being. The first rank in the Ease of Settling In Index goes to Mexico – again. It successfully defends its reputation as the go-to place for a warm welcome. 
In the Family Life Index, last year’s number one, Austria, drops down to fourth rank. The 2015 runner-up, Finland, now makes it to the top, ahead of the Czech Republic and Israel. Last but not least, the first place in the Personal Finance Index goes to Taiwan, too. With Ukraine, another newcomer features among the best three — also emerging as the top-rated country in the Cost of Living Index.
The survey goes far beyond number-crunching and comparative data analysis. For instance, it even voices the most common expat problems in insightful one-liners gleaned from the participants: “I miss my personal support network (family or friends).” “I don’t like being financially dependent on my partner.” “I am worried about my future finances.” “I have trouble making new friends.” “I have had some trouble with culture shock.” “Moving abroad has been bad for my psychological/mental health.” Since people move abroad for a variety of reasons, the survey has even identified 10 different expat types that range from ‘The Foreign Assignee’ to ‘The Travelling Spouse’ (see infographic).
When asked how does he view Qatar’s progression as a more wholesome hub for expats in the coming months or years, Zeeck said, “One can find a lot of interesting information about this question by looking at the various ratings from our survey respondents, and find out where Qatar could potentially improve from the point of view of foreigners who actually live there.” 
Pointing out Qatar’s low ranking in the Ease of Settling In Index, where it comes 61st out of 67 destinations worldwide, Zeeck explained, “This index includes a variety of ‘soft’, more emotional aspects of living abroad. To pick just one example: expats in Qatar are clearly very unhappy about how hard it is to make local friends, which 61% of the survey participants have trouble with. In the Working Abroad Index, the lowest ranking goes to the Work-Life Balance category — nearly one-third of all respondents in Qatar are less than satisfied with personal work-life balance. Indeed, the average work week for a full-time employee seems to be longer in Qatar, at 46.7 hours, than the global survey average of 44.6 hours. Of course, this is perfectly within the bounds of Qatari labour law, which stipulates a maximum of 48 working hours per week, but especially for regular employees in a nonexecutive position, 40 hours has become a standard to aspire to.”
In the Quality of Life Index, expats are, among other factors, less than enthusiastic about aspects like the affordability of healthcare or the local transport infrastructure, while according to the Family Life Index, expat parents struggle with the affordability of childcare and education, Zeeck said. “All these factors might be mitigated to some extent by measures that individual companies could take to attract the best international employees – make sure their staff members have enough time for leisure and family, offer comprehensive health insurance packages, organise a pick-up service for the commute, or sponsor some of their costs for education and schooling. 
Even the difficulties of finding friends could be made easier with workplaces providing more opportunities for socialising among colleagues, expats and Qataris alike,” Zeeck explained.
Salaries, however, are admittedly fairly competitive in Qatar. “Though Qatar actually ranks 62nd out of 67 destinations in the Cost of Living Index, its 35th place in the Personal Finance Index indicates that expats are nonetheless content with their financial situation and income,” Zeeck said.
Founded in 2007 by Zeeck, Philipp von Plato, Christian Leifeld, InterNations is the largest global expat network with 2.3mn members spread across communities in 390 cities around the world.