Expats have voted Taiwan as the place offering the best quality of life.
The island republic has a population of around 750,000 expats in a population of 23.5 million.
Taiwan scored high in the six categories voted by expats to rank top ahead of Portugal and Spain.
The highest scores for Taiwan were for affordable health care (96%), quality of medical care (92%) and personal safety (98%).
“The affordable, multi-faceted healthcare system impresses expats from the US as much as those from other countries. In the past 25 years, Taiwan has made the change to a single-payer system which provides comprehensive care,” said Internations, the expat monitor making the survey.
Expats voting for runner-up Portugal tipped the environment (96%) and weather (94%) as the main reasons for enhancing their quality of life.
Safe and family-centred
Many expats were also happy with the country’s peacefulness (77%) and personal safety (73%).
“An expat from the US told us they agree that the country is indeed peaceful, safe, and family-centred, and a Brazilian survey respondent says that she came to Portugal in search of security,” said Internations.
In third place was Spain, let down by uncertainty over the country’s political future after the protests aimed at gaining independence for the province of Catalonia.
“While Spain also receives a lot of positive feedback for peacefulness and personal safety of 90% and 93%, respectively, only 55% rate the political situation positively,” said the survey.
“But the country receives the best ratings for available leisure options in general at 93%, and 96% of expats in Spain enjoy the local climate and weather.”
Least favourite expat destinations
At the bottom of the 66 nation rankings were Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Myanmar. All three have had positions in the bottom 10 for the past five years.
Malta saw the biggest drop of 19 placings in the rankings, from 19 to 38thplace.
The Mediterranean island scores highly for weather and climate, but ratings have bombed for socialising and leisure, dropping from 75% to 69%, while 17% express unhappiness with Malta’s leisure scene.
Political stability was also ranked low (56%).
“One expat from the UK said that corruption seems endemic at all levels of society, and an Irish respondent even thinks that the horrendous corruption in every aspect of governance is appalling,” said the survey.
