UAE 1st in Arab world, 9th globally in ‘Safest Places to Live’ list
DUBAI 30 SEPTEMBER 2018: The UAE has been ranked the 1st in the Arab world – and 9th globally – on the list of ‘Safest Places to Live’ in by InterNationsorg’s 2018 Expat Insider Survey report.
However, the top country voted as the best for expats is in the GCC – Bahrain.
Surprisingly, the top 6 countries are represented by four continents – Asia (Taiwan 2nd), Latin America (Ecuador 3rd), North America (Mexico 5th) and Europe (Portugal 6th).
The UK and India are towards the bottom of the list of 68 countries ranked.
For the second year running, Bahrain topped the Expat Insider ranking from InterNations. It scores first place among both male and female respondents, generally doing well across most topics.
Respondents have few problems communicating even without local language skills: a staggering 72% say it is no problem at all! Considering Bahrain’s great results for friendliness (2nd out of 68), finding friends (2nd), as well as feeling at home (1st), its first place in the Ease of Settling In Index is hardly a surprise. Or as an Indian expat in Bahrain sums up: “I don’t feel like an expat. I feel at home.”
The top 10 are:
- Bahrain
- Taiwan
- Ecuador
- Mexico
- Singapore
- Portugal
- Costa Rica
- Spain
- Colombia
- Czech Republic
GCC States
In terms of quality of life, Bahrain and the UAE offer an above-average quality of life.
Safety & Security is undoubtedly the Gulf States’ strongest subcategory, although there is again a big disparity between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and the other countries in the region. The UAE (9th) and Oman (10th) both rank in the top 10. An impressive 61% of expats in Oman give the political stability the best possible rating, while an almost unrivaled 94% of respondents attest to the peacefulness of the country. In the words of an Indian expat in Oman: “It is a peaceful and easygoing country, with tremendous natural beauty and super friendly people.”
Similarly to Oman, expats in the UAE rate the political stability very highly (10th), but the UAE stands out particularly for personal safety, with 97% of expats feeling safe.
In the Travel & Transportation subcategory, only the UAE (13th) is in the top half of the ranking from the GCC.
