Out of 64 countries, India has been ranked a dismal 55, when it comes to quality of an expat’s life. Last year as well, India was ranked within the worst 10 countries, and besides few pointers, the scenario has only worsened.
InterNations GmBH, a Germany-based expat social group, conducts one of the largest survey called ‘Insider Expats’ which aims to determine the best countries for expats to live and work. The survey covered 14,000 respondents across 195 countries, and asked about the happiness of expats relative to the country they are staying; and the results are bad for India.
Not only environmental conditions such as pollution but family life, love life and security factors were flagged down by the expats in India.
Some of the basic factors which were covered in this survey:
- Quality of life: Leisure options, Personal Happiness, Travel and Transport, Health, Safety and Well being
- Ease of settling in: Feeling welcome, finding new friends, Language
- Working: Job and career, Job security, career growth
- Family life: Cost of childcare, quality of education, family well-being
- Personal Finance options and ease of investments
The most important question was: “How satisfied are you with life abroad in general?”
As per the survey results, Ecuador, Mexico and Malta have been declared as the top 3 countries for expats; meanwhile Nigeria, Greece and Kuwait are the worst three countries.
Here are the top 10 countries:
- Ecuador
- Mexico
- Malta
- Singapore
- Luxembourg
- New Zealand
- Thailand
- Panama
- Canada
- Australia
And the worst 10 countries for expats:
- Kuwait
- Greece
- Nigeria
- Saudi Arabia
- Russia
- Kazakhstan
- Italy
- Brazil
- Mozambique
- India
Life in India
If we focus on India, then the quality of life for an expat hasn’t improved much, compared to last year.
For instance, under cost of living factor, India was ranked 13th last year, which has improved to 11th this year; however, for family life, India has gone down to 34th rank this year from 28th last year.
Quality of life metric is ‘stable’ at 58th rank, but we are way below other countries in this respect.
Working conditions have slightly improved as India is now ranked 51, instead of 52 last year.
Personal finance options in India are among the top 10 in the world, as we have been ranked #9, compared to #14 last year. Ease of settling in has also improved with 44th rank this year, compared to 46 last year.
Last month, we had reported that Chennai is the cheapest Indian city to live for expats, while Mumbai is the most expensive. Meanwhile, Bangalore had been reported as the most livable city for expats.
Women & Children Are Unsafe in India?
This year, the survey included one additional factor: best place for women expats to work, compared with men. And there are no surprises here as India has been ranked 53rd, out of 65 countries. However, if we only talk about men, then India is ranked 49th position, which shows the current mess we are in.
In terms of children’s’ safety and health, India is again one of the worst nations for expats. Only 5% of the surveyed expats from India said that conditions are good; 95% said it’s really bad. Overall, only 50% of expats living in India are happy about the factors pertaining to kids and women.
Difficult Finding Love In India
49% of single expats have shared that India is one of the most difficult countries to find love and romance while 38% said that expat lifestyle makes relationship forming as an impossible task in India.
Only 23% of expats in India are able to practice and learn local language, which makes the whole process of love discovery even more difficult. No wonder that under “Work-Life Balance” factor, India is ranked at the bottom of the list with 64th rank.
Here is a westerner’s view of living and working in India.
You can find the complete report here.
