Are expatriates falling back in love with New Zealand? Aotearoa regains ground in the Expat index. Photo / AR, Unsplash
Are expatriates falling back in love with New Zealand? Aotearoa regains ground in the Expat index. Photo / AR, Unsplash
An annual report into the best country for expatriate quality of life has singled out Aotearoa as the best country to live outside of Europe.
UK-based insurer William Russell has released its World Expatriate Index, measuring happiness, health, employment and quality of life of a prospective move abroad.
Finland was the north star for quality of life, scoring 7.91 out of 10, which helped it land the title of 'best place to live as an expatriate'. Europe offered plenty of appeal among the "world's richest and most developed countries".
Finland is the number 1 country to relocate to for overall Expatriate quality of life. Photo / Tapio Haaja, Unsplash
The two countries ranking highest outside of Europe were New Zealand and Australia, coming in 5th and 6th place. The report said it was no surprise then that combined expatriate population of both countries "stands at over 28 per cent."
For New Zealand this was an 'about face', given last year it nearly didn't make the top ten - climbing from ninth to fifth place.
Earlier this year a competing survey by InterNations voted the country as the second worst country to relocate to, with 12,000 respondents complaining that the cost of living was too high and pay too low.
The dissatisfaction was more than the tyranny of distance and hard pandemic travel restrictions.
Australia is home to the happiest expatriates according to the survey. Photo / Dimitry Osipenko, Unsplash
"New Zealand's scores were inconsistent overall, ranking 25th and 26th for health and employment respectively. However, The Kiwis were joint second for their total happiness score, and in the top ten for their quality of life," said the William Russel rankings.
So where should New Zealand expatriates relocate to for a better quality of life?
Northern Europe and Scandinavia took gold, silver and bronze in the expatriate quality of life index - with Finland followed by Sweden and Norway. Although employment prospects proved a soft scoring area for all three. The Swedes climbed five places to join the other two, which remained stable in the rankings.
Expatriate happiness on a budget? You might love Latvia. Photo / Darya Tryfanava, Unsplash
Staying in the Baltic - countries with the best quality of life scores, and a fraction of the cost of city centre in Scandinavian countries, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia might be the 'best value' expatriate bases.
Though underperforming in employment prospects and quality of life, Australia maintained the top spot for happiness. This might be because it also had the highest amount of space per capita, with 3.32 square km per person. With 207 people per square km in Aus, versus Bahrain (#21) with 2,232. Although not every expatriate is happy about the quality of life in Aus.
