The World Expat Index
As the world becomes increasingly connected and easy to traverse, people have become more and more fascinated with the idea of uprooting and moving abroad. Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has strived to expand, explore the horizon and settle in new lands, and this spirit is still alive today as thousands of people look to move to a new country every year.
Brits are no exception to this rule, as many look to move away for a multitude of reasons. There are around 760,000 British expats currently living all over the world. But if you are an aspiring expat, where should you be looking to move to?
Here at William Russell, we’ve used our expertise in international health insurance and global income protection to dive into the data for some of the world's richest and most developed countries. We have combined a number of factors such as happiness and wellbeing, expat health, employment opportunities, and quality of life to determine which foreign nations are the most advantageous for expats. With updated data for these factors, we wanted to see what has changed over the last year.
The best countries for expats ranked
Key
Happiness score /10 Health score /10 Employment score /10 Country quality of life score /10 Total score /40|
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Best performing countries for every category
Best performing countries for every happiness category
The happiest country
Finland
7.84/10
world happiness report
Finland is the happiest country according to the latest world happiness report rankings, as they scored 7.84/10. Despite going down by 0.05 points, Finland maintains their top spot.
The country with the most open space
Australia
3.32
people per km2
Australia has the highest amount of space for people on average, with 3.32 people per km2 down under. On average there are 207.23 people per km2 in the world, and Bahrain has the least 2,231.98 people per km2, and therefore the least amount of open space.
The country with the highest % of expats
UAE
88.13%
UAE has by far the highest percentage of expats in their population with 88.13%, this is much higher than second-placed Bahrain’s 55.01%.
Total happiness score
Australia
9.37/10
Australia takes the top spot with a total happiness score of 9.37/10. Australia has a high WHR score of 7.18/10 and ranks highest as the country with the most open space. Australia’s neighbour, New Zealand, ranks second with a total happiness score of 8.93.
Best performing countries for happiness
Key
World happiness report score /10 Amount of space (people per km2) Percentage of expats Total happiness score /10|
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Best performing countries for every health category
Country with the longest life expectancy
Japan
85
years old
The average life expectancy in Japan is the highest anywhere in the world, as the Japanese live for 85 years on average. The global average is 78.14, therefore people in Japan live more than six years longer on average than most of the people in the world.
Most hospitals
India
69,000
India maintains their top spot with the most hospitals anywhere in the world with 69,000, which is twice as many as China, which takes second place with 34,000 hospitals.
Most hospitals by population
Colombia
4,668.58
people per hospital
Colombia has the best people to hospitals ratio as there is one hospital per 4,669 people in the South American nation. This is because 10,899 hospitals cater for a population of around 50 million
Average number of hospitals per km2
Bangladesh
22.38
hospitals per km2
Bangladesh has the best hospitals to area ratio with one every 22.8 km2, this means that on average across Bangladesh most areas have easy access to a hospital. The place with the second most hospitals per km2 is South Korea with a hospital every 24.19 km2 on average.
The most hospital beds per 1,000 people
Japan
13 beds
per 1,000
Japan has the best ratio of hospital beds with 13 beds per 1,000 people, this is followed by South Korea with 12.4 beds per 1,000 people. The global average is 3.97 beds per 1,000 people.
Least amount of covid deaths
Cyprus
1,079
deaths
Cyprus recorded the fewest covid deaths with just 1,079, over 400 less than Bahrain which was second in this category. The country with the most covid deaths on our list was America, which recorded over 1 million.
Most physicians per 100,000
Italy
8
per 100,000 people
Italy has the highest number of physicians per 100,000 people, replacing Georgia which took first place last year, with an average of eight. Italy has doubled their number of physicians per 100,000 over the last year, from four to eight, overtaking Georgia’s score of 7.1.
Total health score
Japan
7.94/10
Courtesy of being top in two categories (as well as performing well for the other factors), Japan has the highest overall health score with 7.95/10. This is much higher than the average of 4.91/10, the lowest scoring nation is the Philippines with 1.11/10.
Best performing countries for health
Key
Average life expectancy Number of hospitals Average people per hospital Average km2 per hospital Number of hospital beds per 1,000 people Covid 19 deaths Number of physicians per 100,000 people Total health score|
Rank
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Best performing countries for every employment category
Unemployment Rate
Thailand
1.4%
unemployment rate
Thailand has the lowest unemployment rate, and maintains its top spot with just 1.4% of the working population not in work. On the other hand, South Africa has 33.60% unemployed, whilst the average on our list is 7.41%.
Average income per capita
Norway
$53,518
Norway maintains its place at the top, with an average income per capita of $53,518. The United States narrowly misses out by just over $200, with Denmark completing the top three.
Overall labour rights
Lithuania
96/100
Lithuania has the highest overall labour rights score with 96/100 in total. Finland has the second highest score at 93.5/100, and the global average is 78.21/100.
Overall employment score
The Netherlands & Poland
5.77/10
By taking into account a number of factors to create an overall employment score, The Netherlands and Poland came out as the joint best country for employment with a score of 5.77/10, replacing Poland which has dropped to fifth place. Meanwhile, the average score in our list of countries is 3.77/10.
Best performing countries for employment
Key
Unemployment rate Average income per capita ($) Decent working hours /100 Employment security /100 Maternity at work /100 Safe work /100 Trade union /100people Overall labour rights /100 Overall employment score|
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Best performing countries for every quality of life category
Level of crime
UAE
10.81/100
The lowest level of crime is found in UAE which has a score of 10.81/100, maintaining the top spot for the second year in a row. By comparison, the average crime level across our list is 40.69, which has increased slightly since last year.
City centre apartment cost
Egypt
£527
per m2
Egypt takes the top spot this year, replacing Mauritius whose city centre apartment cost has rocketed up since last year, by almost £400.
Rural apartment cost
Egypt
£302
per m2
Egypt took the top spot once again, replacing Turkey this time, with a rural apartment cost of £302 per m2. The home of the pyramids looks to be a great place for housing costs.
Air Quality
Finland
92.18/100
Finland maintains the top spot with the highest air quality anywhere in the world with a near-perfect score of 92.18/100, comparatively the average score is 54.99 for air quality.
Drinking water quality
Finland
96.74/100
Finland maintains the top spot for both good air and drinking water quality. In fact, Finnish water achieved a score of 96.74. The average score for drinking water quality is higher than air quality at 71.
Garbage disposal
Finland
88.59/100
A third quality of life factor in which Finland maintains its top spot is garbage disposal, where the Scandinavian nation achieved a score of 88.59. The global average is 57.84, and Egypt has the lowest score with 17.24.
Quality of parks
Latvia
87.27/100
Latvia has the best quality parks anywhere in the world with a score of 87.27 and maintains this for the second year in a row. Meanwhile, Malta still has the lowest quality parks with a score of 19.52.
Gender equality
Finland
0.861/1
Finland has the best score when it comes to gender equality achieving a total score of 0.861. The average score in our list of countries is 0.73, and 41 countries have a score of 0.7 or higher.
Total quality of life score
Finland
7.91/10
Finland achieved the highest overall quality of life score at 7.91 for 2022. This is no surprise considering that Finland ranks top for four out of the eight categories. Slovenia is our new runner-up with a score of 7.5
China achieved the lowest score of 2.16. The average score was 4.998.
Best performing countries for quality of life
Key
Level of crime/100 City centre apartment cost (£ per metre2) Rural apartment cost (£ per metre2) Air quality /100 Drinking water quality and accessibility /100 Garbage disposal /100 Quality of parks /100 people Gender equality /1 Total quality of life score /10|
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The World Expat Index
Key
World happiness report score /10 Amount of space (people per km2) Percentage of expats Total happiness score Average life expectancy Number of hospitals Average people per hospital Average km2 per hospital Number of hospital beds per 1,000 people Covid 19 deaths Number of physicians per 100,000 people Total health score Unemployment rate Average income per capita ($) Decent working hours /100 Employment security /100 Maternity at work /100 Safe work /100 Trade union /100 people Overall labour rights /100 Overall employment score Level of crime/100 City centre apartment cost (£ per metre2) Rural apartment cost (£ per metre2) Air quality /100 Drinking water quality and accessibility /100 Garbage disposal /100 Quality of parks /100 people Gender equality /1 Total quality of life score /10 Total score /40|
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Happiness |
Health |
Employment |
Quality of Life |
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Methodology
List of Countries
To create a list of countries to study we looked at countries that fitted into three groups:
Developed Countries (Any country on the Human Development Index with a score higher than 8)
Any country in the top fifty biggest in terms of their GDP.
Along the way we deleted countries that fitted all three categories if we could not collect data for them in multiple factors.
Happiness
We used three factors to calculate happiness:
The overall score for each country from the most recent World Happiness Report.
We calculated the amount of space by working out the average number of people per km2.
The percentage of the population in each country that were expats.
We then used a weighted index to calculate a score out of ten for each country based on these factors.
Health
The health score was determined by seven different factors:
World Bank data on life expectancy.
Number of hospitals: OECD data, and for non OECD countries multiple data sources were used.
‘Average People per Hospital’, and ‘Average km2 per hospital’ were calculated by dividing the population and area of each country by the number of hospitals.
Number of hospital beds per 100,000 people from World Bank data.
Worldometers live COVID-19 deaths data to see how well each country has handled the pandemic.
And the World Bank data on the number of physicians per 100,000 people.
We then used a weighted index to calculate a score out of ten for each country based on these factors.
Employment
Eight determining factors were used to calculate the employment score:
Unemployment rate as a percentage of the working population, from World Bank data.
Average income per capita, again from the World Bank
Decent working hours, employment security, maternity at work, safe work, trade unions, and overall labour rights scores were all sourced from the Labour Rights Index
We then used a weighted index to calculate a score out of ten for each country based on these factors.
Quality of Life
We used eight factors to discover the quality of life score: level of crime, city centre apartment cost per m2, rural apartment cost per m2, drinking water quality and accessibility, garbage disposal, quality of parks and green spaces, and gender equality.
The first seven were all sourced from Numbeo.
Gender Equality data Global Gender Gap Report
We then used a weighted index to calculate a score out of ten for each country based on these factors.
Combined Data:
To discover the overall best scores for each country we added together their score out of ten for each category to get a total out of 40.
We then ranked the nations by this score.