The Best and Worst Countries for Expats

Published August 15, 2022

Expats living in different countries around the world find some countries make it easy to settle in and make friends, but in other places, affordability and personal safety are big concerns.
The United States is home to the highest number of immigrants in the world — 50.6 million, about 15% of the population — followed by Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russia and the U.K., according to the U.N.

Career prospects in the U.S. could be the reason: a survey of expats around the world by Internations, a global networking and information site for people who live and work abroad, found the U.S. ranks No. 1 in this category.

But for quality of life for immigrants, the U.S. ranks 36th of 52 countries, and in the bottom three for health and wellbeing.

The ranking is the result of Internations’ survey of 11,970 respondents representing 177 nationalities and living in 181 countries.

Expats were asked to rate 56 different factors in the areas of:

Personal finance
Quality of life, which includes travel/transit, environment/climate, leisure options, health and well-being, and safety/security
Ease of settling in, which rates local friendliness, finding friends, and culture/welcome
Working abroad includes career prospects in the country, salary/job security, work/leisure balance, and work culture and satisfaction.
Expat essentials addresses other issues that expats face when arriving in a new country, such as internet access, housing, language barriers and administration.
Only countries with 50 or more participants are included in the ranking—there were 52 that met this requirement.

Spain, Taiwan and Austria top the list for quality of life. As for making friends, Mexico is No. 1, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines. In personal finance, eight of the top 10 destinations are in Asia, with Vietnam ranking No. 1.

Most of the expats surveyed (80%) had no children. About 18% were age 61 and older, the largest age group. About a third made the move for work, 22% for love and family, 10% for education, and others made the move for lifestyle reasons: 7% for a better quality of life, and 3% to retire abroad.

Some of the most common countries people moved to were Germany, the UAE, Spain, the U.S. and the U.K.

The survey found that Americans were the largest group of nationalities to move abroad, followed by British, Indian, German and Italian. Estimates in 2015 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office say about 8.7 million Americans live elsewhere, with the majority in the Western hemisphere, especially in Mexico and Canada, about 2 million in Europe and Eurasia, and about 1.1 million in East Asia and the Pacific.

Based on the Internations survey of nearly 12,000 expats in 52 countries, these are the best and worst countries for to live abroad:

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