Taiwan reclaims top spot as best place for expats: survey

Taipei, Sept. 7 (CNA) Taiwan was again voted as the best place to live for expatriates in 2019, after claiming the top spot three years ago, thanks to its good medical service, quality of life and job environment, according to a survey by the expat networking website InterNations.

In the 2019 Expat Insider survey by the Munich-based InterNations, Taiwan was chosen as the top expat destination with an overall satisfaction rate of 86 percent from expats living in the island, compared to an average of 75 percent from expats living in other countries surveyed.

Taiwan ranked second in 2018 and fourth in 2017, after topping the survey in 2016.

The survey collected feedback from more than 20,000 respondents in 64 destinations around the world on their satisfaction in terms of quality of life, ease of settling in, working life, personal finance, cost of living, and family life in their respective country of residence.

"Taiwan offers great variety for such a small island. Nature, the culture and the people are very friendly," an introductory video of the survey posted on the InterNations website said.

According to the survey results, Taiwan ranked 3rd in quality of life, with 96 percent of respondents on the island satisfied with the level of personal safety; 6th in favorable personal finances, 8th in working life, 11th in cost of living and 14th in ease of settling in.

The survey also found that with only nine percent of respondents raising children in 2019, there were not enough expat parents for Taiwan to rank in the Family Life Index.

In sub-categories, nearly 92 percent of the respondents living in Taiwan gave their nods on the quality medical care offered on the island and 89 percent were satisfied with its affordability. The survey pointed out that"no other destination has performed better for either factor since Taiwan entered the survey."

Also, Taiwan came in second for expats' career prospects with a 65 percent satisfaction rating.

However, the great performance in these sub-categories were offset by the quality of the environment, which ranked 35th in the survey, with expats citing some pollution problems, and the obstacle in learning the local language, which 52 percent of expats surveyed mentioned they were struggling with.

Completing this year's top 10 favorable destinations from the second place to 10th place are: Vietnam, Portugal, Mexico, Spain, Singapore, Bahrain, Ecuador, Malaysia, and Czechia.

Meanwhile, Kuwait, Italy, Nigeria, Brazil, Turkey, India, the United Kingdom, Greece, Russia, and South Korea were voted the worst countries for expats.