As the world becomes increasingly connected and easy to traverse, people have become more and more fascinated about 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?
By delving deep 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.
Key
Happiness score /10 Health score /10 Employment score /10 Country quality of life score /10 Average score /10 Total score /40|
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Finland is the happiest country according to the latest world happiness report rankings, as they scored 7.89/10, this is higher than the global average of 6.28/10 by 1.61.
people per km2
Australia has the highest amount of space for people on average, there are 3.32 people per km2 down under. On average there are 207.23 people per km2 in the world, Bahrain has the most at 2,231.98 per km2.
The UAE has by far the highest percentages of expats in their population with 86.82%, this is much higher than second placed Bahrain’s 43.56%. By comparison the global average is 12.13% of the population are expats.
The UAE also has the highest total expat happiness scoe at 8.78/10. This is followed by second placed Switzerland with 7.62/10, and Australia with 7.41/10. The global average is 6.01/10, and India had the lowest score with 3.82/10.
Key
World happiness report score /10 Amount of space (people per km2) Percentage of expats Total happiness score /10|
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years old
Average life expectancy in Japan is the highest anywhere in the world, as the Japanese live for 84.4 years on average. The global average is 78.14, therefore people in Japan live 6.26 years longer on average than most of the people in the world.
people per hospital
Colombia has the best people to hospitals ratio as there is a hospital per 4,669 people in the South American nation. This is because 10,899 hospitals cater for a population of around 50 million.
India has the most hospitals anywhere in the world with 69,000, this is far above the average of 3,049. In total there are 186,004 hospitals worldwide, meaning that 37.09% of the developed world's hospitals are in India.
hospitals per km2
Bangladesh has the best hospitals to area ratio with one every 22.8 km2, this means that on average across Bangladesh the most areas have hospital access. The second place is South Korea with a hospital every 24.19 km2 on average.
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.
deaths
The country that has dealt with the pandemic the best is Mauritius which has only seen 19 deaths from covid 19 so far. By comparison, almost 630,000 have died in the USA from coronavirus.
per 100,000 people
Georgia has the highest number of physicians per 100,000 people, with an average of 7.1. The global average is 3.11 physicians per 100,000, Lithuania has the second highest amount at 6.4.
Courtesy of being top in two categories (as well as performing well for the other factors), Japan has the highest overall health score with 7.8/10. This is higher than the average of 6.43/10, the lowest scoring nation is the Philippines with 4.02/10.
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|
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unemployment rate
Thailand has the lowest unemployment rate, as only 1% of the working population are not in work. On the other hand South Africa has 28.7% unemployed, the global average is 7.67%.
Three Scandinavian countries have the highest average incomes per capita, and Norway is top of the pile with an average annual wage of £43,849 per capita. This is almost £30,000 more than the global average of £15,713.
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.
By taking into account a number of factors to create an overall employment score, Poland came out as the best country for employment with a score of 9.32/10. Meanwhile, the average score across the globe is 7.52/10.
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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The lowest level of crime is found in the UAE who have a score of 10.88/100, by comparison the average crime level is 39.52.
per m2
The best value country to purchase a city centre apartment is in Mauritius where it will cost £569.43 per m2. Switzerland is the most expensive country for the same factor with apartments costing £8,669.01.
per m2
Rural apartments in Turkey are the cheapest with average costs of £419.81 per m2, Kazakhstan has the second most affordable at £468.67 m2. Switzerland again has the most expensive at £6,071.48 per m2.
Finland has the highest air quality anywhere in the world with a near perfect score of 92.39/100, comparatively the average score is 54.62 for air quality.
As well as good air, Finland has very high quality drinking water. In fact, Finnish water achieved a score of 96.98. The average score for drinking water quality is higher than air quality at 70.85.
A third quality of life factor which Finland comes out top in is garbage disposal, where the Scandinavian nation achieved a score of 88.16. The global average is 57.63, and Egypt has the lowest score with 16.63.
Latvia has the best quality parks anywhere in the world with a score of 86.63, meanwhile Malta has the lowest quality parks with a score of 18.75.
Iceland has the best score when it comes to gender equality, the volcanic island nation achieved a total of 0.89. The average score around the world is 0.73, and 47 countries have a score of 0.7 or higher.
Iceland has the highest overall quality of life score at 9.1, this is closely followed by Finland who achieved a score of 8.81. Malta achieved the lowest score of 4.53, and the average score was 6.82.
The mid-Atlantic volcanic island of Iceland is the best country for quality of life, and the only one to achieve an overall score above 9. Iceland has the highest gender equality score and also ranks highly in every other category.
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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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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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.
