Expat Insider Survey: Ease of Settling In
Last year (no data for 2025?!) InterNations published its annual report on Expat life, covering a wide range of topics like best cities for expats, quality of life, etc. While this is all self-report data, the number of respondents (12K+) is interesting, and I'm drawn in particular to what they're calling "Ease of Settling In."
This is defined as friendliness of locals, ease of finding friends, as well as ease of assimilation to the local culture and feeling at home. While jobs, education, refugee friendliness, etc. are the initial draw for people to move somewhere, whether or not they stay and contribute to economy/society is much more about how well they've adjusted to life there.
I've written on tangential topics before, but I think this space will see a lot of creative churn over the next decade. Apps, government programs, private sector investment -- all around the philosophy of not just allowing people in but acculturating them. I expect countries that do better at this to reap more rewards economically and socially, and the opposite to be true for those that do not.
Here's the top and bottom 10 as listed by InterNations:
Top 10
- Málaga
- Mexico City
- Alicante
- Valencia
- Ras Al Khaimah
- Bangkok
- Madrid
- Panama City
- Nairobi
- Muscat
Bottom 10
- Vancouver
- Stockholm
- Oslo
- Basel
- Cologne
- Zurich
- Frankfurt
- Berlin
- Hamburg
- Munich