Saudi Arabia among worst countries for expats

Saudi Arabia is among the 10 worst countries for expats to live in, a new survey has found.

In the survey by InterNations, votes were collected from 14,300 expats, representing 174 nationalities and living in 191 countries or territories, who rated 43 different aspects of life abroad.



Aspects including healthcare, safety, education, childcare and the cost of living were rated on a scale of one to seven.

While Saudi Arabia was rated among the worst countries to live in for expats, Taiwan leads the list for being the best. At least 34 per cent of expats were completely satisfied with their jobs, which was more than double the global average of 16 per cent.

Kuwait, for the third year running is at the bottom of the list, going down drastically in the ‘Working Abroad’ and ‘Personal Finance’ indices.

UAE came in at 40th position overall, with one of the most notable drops in ranking this year-round. From 19th position in the previous year, UAE saw a drastic decline in indices such as 'Cost of Living' and 'Working Abroad'. Other countries with high rates of decline include Indonesia, Hong Kong and Malaysia.



On the contrary, countries that show drastic jumps in rankings include Vietnam (35 to 11), Uganda (45 to 25), and Finland (51 to 32). Meanwhile, India is ranked 49 while Bahrain was at the top of the list among other Middle Eastern countries.

Here's how other countries fared on the list.

Best countries for expats:

1. Taiwan

2. Malta

3. Ecuador

4. Mexico

5. New Zealand

6. Costa Rica

7. Australia

8. Austria

9. Luxembourg

10. Czech Republic

Worst countries for expats: 

1. Kuwait

2. Greece

3. Nigeria

4. Brazil

5. Saudi Arabia

6. Egypt

7. Mozambique

8. Qatar

9. Italy

10. Tanzania

This article originally appeared on Gulf News