Ranked: where expats find it easiest to settle in

The countries where expats find it easiest to settle in have been ranked with Mexico taking the top spot. We take a closer look at the results of the survey

Mexico has topped the rankings of an expat survey of where expats find it easiest to settle in, with expats reporting that the country is friendly, welcoming and an easy place to make friends.

Other countries that performed well were Malaysia, Costa Rica, Colombia and Bahrain. At the other end of the spectrum, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Japan all performed poorly with Kuwait named the country where expats find it hardest to settle.

Expats feel at home in Mexico

92% of respondents said they find Mexicans are typically friendly towards foreign residents. Similarly, 89% said they are also happy with the general friendliness of the population – 20 percentage points higher than the global average of 69%.

73% of expats also said they find Spanish, the local language in Mexico, easy to learn compared to 39% globally.

With more than 4.1 million members in 420 cities around the world, InterNations is the largest global community and a useful source of information for people who live and work abroad.

Now in its eighth year, its annual expat survey draws on data from a survey of over 12,000 expat respondents from across the globe. Together, they represent a total of 174 nationalities and live in 186 countries or territories around the world.

Respondents are asked to rate up to 37 factors related to various aspects of expat life on a scale of one to seven.

One of those factors is the Ease of Settling In. Members are asked questions on if they feel at home in their new destination; if they find it friendly; how easy it is to make friends; and if they find the local language a barrier to assimilating.

Their answers are used to create three subcategory indices, which are compiled to create an overall ranking of where expats find it easiest to settle in.

The minimum sample size per country is 75 respondents making it possible to rank 59 countries by where expats find it easiest to settle in.

Some interesting points from the research:

• Mexico is where expats find it easiest to settle in.
• Mexico and Costa Rica were rated the best places for making friends.
• Expats find Taiwan the friendliest place to live.
• Expats in Malaysia find it easiest to get by without learning the local language.
• Kuwait, Japan and Denmark are ranked at the bottom of the index.
• In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, expats say making friends is particularly difficult.
• Mexico, Malaysia, and Portugal are where expats feel most at home.
• Expats find the language barrier is particularly challenging in Hungary and Russia.
• For expats in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland), making connections seems to be particularly challenging.

1. Mexico
2. Malaysia
3. Costa Rica
4. Colombia
5. Bahrain
6. Oman
7. Philippines
8. Indonesia
9. Portugal
10. Ecuador

11. Kenya
12. Canada
13. Taiwan
14. Panama
15. Spain
16. New Zealand
17. UAE
18. Australia
19. Greece
20. Thailand

21. Ireland
22. Singapore
23. Ukraine
24. Brazil
25. Vietnam
26. USA
27. Romania
28. Cyprus
29. Qatar
30. Egypt

31. UK
32. Turkey
33. South Africa
34. India
35. Malta
36. Saudi Arabia
37. Luxembourg
38. Hong Kong
39. China
40. Chile

41. Belgium
42. Netherlands
43. Estonia
44. Italy
45. France
46. Poland
47. Hungary
48. Russia
49. Czech Rep.
50. Finland

51. Norway
52. Switzerland
53. Sweden
54. South Korea
55. Germany
56. Austria
57. Denmark
58. Japan
59. Kuwait

Other factors

While an additional ranking was not created for language, the other three are as follows.

Rank	Feeling at home	Friendliness	Finding friends
1	Mexico	Taiwan	Mexico
2	Portugal	Mexico	Costa Rica
3	Malaysia	Costa Rica	Colombia
4	Spain	Oman	Malaysia
5	Costa Rica	Colombia	Taiwan
6	Ecuador	Portugal	Philippines
7	Canada	Indonesia	Ecuador
8	Colombia	Greece	Indonesia
9	Australia	Philippines	Vietnam
10	Ukraine	Brazil	Ukraine
11	Bahrain	Ecuador	Bahrain
12	Taiwan	Vietnam	Greece
13	Philippines	Thailand	Brazil
14	Greece	Bahrain	Thailand
15	Singapore	Malaysia	Oman
16	Thailand	Ireland	Kenya
17	Panama	New Zealand	Panama
18	New Zealand	Canada	Egypt
19	Kenya	Kenya	Spain
20	Indonesia	Spain	Portugal
21	Oman	UAE	China
22	Brazil	Ukraine	Romania
23	UAE	India	India
24	Cyprus	Australia	Singapore
25	Ireland	Egypt	Turkey
26	Romania	Romania	Australia
27	USA	Turkey	Canada
28	Vietnam	Panama	New Zealand
29	Turkey	USA	UAE
30	UK	China	Ireland
31	Malta	Cyprus	Hong Kong
32	Luxembourg	Saudi Arabia	Russia
33	France	Malta	Malta
34	Egypt	UK	South Africa
35	Estonia	South Africa	Cyprus
36	Qatar	Qatar	Hungary
37	Hong Kong	Belgium	USA
38	Poland	Singapore	Saudi Arabia
39	Chile	Italy	Qatar
40	South Africa	Netherlands	Czech Rep.
41	Belgium	Luxembourg	Poland
42	Czech Rep.	France	UK
43	Italy	Hong Kong	Chile
44	Hungary	Chile	Luxembourg
45	Saudi Arabia	Russia	Italy
46	Netherlands	Japan	France
47	Austria	Hungary	Belgium
48	Russia	Poland	Estonia
49	China	Finland	South Korea
50	Finland	South Korea	Finland
51	Switzerland	Estonia	Netherlands
52	India	Germany	Germany
53	Germany	Norway	Austria
54	Norway	Switzerland	Switzerland
55	Denmark	Czech Rep.	Japan
56	South Korea	Sweden	Kuwait
57	Sweden	Denmark	Norway
58	Japan	Austria	Denmark
59	Kuwait	Kuwait	Sweden

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► Happiest countries in the world
► World’s most powerful passport
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► Most expensive cities for expats
► World’s most democratic countries

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Lead image: Diego Grandi/Shutterstock