Thailand moves into top 10 of best countries to live for expats

A new survey has seen Thailand climb into the top 10 best countries to live for expats.

A survey by InterNations, in the Expat Insider 2022, revealed Thailand has climbed six places to No.8 in the top 10 countries to live for foreigners from last year’s 14th place. But it’s not all good news for the ‘farang’ community in the Land of Smiles. Thailand ranked low in administration and performed poorly in the working abroad category.

Berlin-based InterNations, which has an expat community of more than 4 million members, surveyed foreigner life in 52 destinations and gathered answers from about 12,000 members worldwide.

The study asked their expat community how satisfied they were in their respective country of residence with their: Quality of Life, Ease of Settling In, Working Abroad, and Personal Finance.

Thailand ranked No.4 in the Personal Finance Index, No.11 in Ease of Settling, 18th for Expat Essentials, and 35th for a poor Quality of Life. The kingdom’s Working Abroad ranking at No.45 dragged down the overall score. But mostly, 77% of foreigners in Thailand say they are happy with their life compared with 71% elsewhere.

Thailand ranked 14th in 2021, and in 25th place out of 64 destinations in 2019. In 2020, when InterNations ranked cities, Bangkok came 20th out of 82 destinations.

The top three destinations in the survey saw Mexico as the No.1 nation, Indonesia No.2, and Taiwan in third. Those three nations scored high for Ease of Settling In and Personal Finance. The rest of the top 10 saw Portugal in fourth, followed by Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and Singapore.

The bottom three were Kuwait No.52, then New Zealand, and Hong Kong, who all performed poorly in terms of personal finances for expats.

Thailand came first in the housing subcategory, with those taking part in the survey admitting their accommodation as both affordable, 74% versus 39% globally, and easy to find, 85% versus 54% globally.

Some 85% of Thai foreigners revealed their disposable income allows them to lead a comfortable life versus 72% globally. Thailand ranked No.3 for the general cost of living at 71% compared with the global average of 45%.

Thailand ranks low, however with the low availability of government services online with 43% of expats unhappy as opposed to 21% globally. Some 51% revealed they find it difficult to deal with the local bureaucracy and authorities, compared to 39% globally.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post