The Best & Worst Cities to Get Started Abroad
- Methodology
- Emirati Cities Nab the Top 3
- German Cities in the Bottom 3, Again
- Trends in the Top 10
- Trends in the Bottom 10
- The Biggest Winners in 2024
- The Biggest Losers in 2024
- Full Ranking
- Further Reading
The Top 10
Methodology
The Expat Essentials Index is based on four subcategories with two to four underlying factors each.
Admin Topics assesses how easy expats find it to get a visa, deal with local bureaucracy, and open a bank account in their new home.
The affordability of housing, as well as the ease of finding accommodation in the first place, make up the Housing Subcategory.
Digital Life summarizes expats’ take on the restrictiveness of online services in general, on the online availability of administrative and government services, as well as the ease of paying cashless and getting high-speed internet set up.
And lastly, the Language Subcategory takes into account how easy respondents find it to learn the local and/or official language(s) in their new home, and whether it’s difficult to live there without speaking it.
Expats were asked to rate all these points on a scale of one (very bad / disagree completely) to seven (very good / agree completely).
To be included in the ranking, a city needs a minimum of 50 respondents. In 2024, 53 destinations made this threshold.
Emirati Cities Nab the Top 3
Expats can have an easy time getting started in Ras Al Khaimah (1st), Abu Dhabi (2nd), and Dubai (3rd). In the 2024 Expat City Ranking, the three Emirati cities fill the top 3 of the Expat Essentials Index.
“What I like best is the ease of access to services — government, shopping, banking, and so on.” – British expat in Dubai
Admin Topics and Language delight expats in all three cities, as neither subcategory is found outside the top 5. Abu Dhabi even ranks 1st for both.
For instance, around four in five respondents say it’s easy to get a visa to move to Abu Dhabi (80% vs. 53% globally) and live there without speaking Arabic (83% vs. 48%). It’s also much easier to deal with the local bureaucracy/authorities in these cities compared to the global average (Ras Al Khaimah 62%; Abu Dhabi 63%; Dubai 63% vs. 36% globally).
Results for the Housing and Digital Life Subcategories vary. In Ras Al Khaimah, expats have an easier go at finding (4th) and affording (2nd) accommodation — in fact, nearly three in four respondents (72%) agree it’s easy for expats to find housing (vs. 45% globally). However, affordability decreases in Abu Dhabi (12th) and Dubai (20th).
Interestingly, when it came to concerns regarding the housing market, bureaucracy, and the language barrier prior to relocating, only 31% of respondents in Ras Al Khaimah cited these points (vs. 71% globally).
The biggest downside? The restricted access to online services like social media. All three cities rank in the bottom 10 for this factor: Ras Al Khaimah (46th), Abu Dhabi (47th), and Dubai (48th). In Ras Al Khaimah, double the global average is dissatisfied (12% vs. 6%).
“I don’t like the restriction of freedoms on things like the internet and voice calls.” – South African expat in Abu Dhabi
Accordingly, Digital Life doesn’t rank as highly as the other subcategories for Ras Al Khaimah (21st) and Dubai (12th). In Abu Dhabi, the subcategory holds on to 8th place partly due to the city ranking 1st for the online availability of administrative/government services (89% positive responses vs. 58% globally) and the ease of setting up high-speed internet at home (92% vs. 78%).
German Cities in the Bottom 3, Again
Berlin (53rd) and Hamburg (52nd) are once again the worst-ranked cities in the Expat Essentials Index. New to the 2024 Expat City Ranking is Cologne, which displaces Munich from the bottom 3 to rank 51st in the index. All four subcategories are in the bottom 10 across the cities, as expats seemingly have a hard time with Admin Topics, Digital Life, Housing, and Language.
“I dislike the bureaucracy, and that practically every contact with the government/city has to be in German. Also digitalization is so behind — I want to be able to access more government services online and pay with my phone.” – Swedish expat in Hamburg
Indeed, dealing with German bureaucracy is a challenge, with up to 74% of expats in Berlin saying it’s difficult (vs. 42% globally). In Cologne, 45% say it’s difficult to get a visa to move there in the first place (vs. 26% globally). And it isn’t much easier in Hamburg or Berlin, either (44% and 38% negative responses, respectively).
Once in Germany, locating accommodation is another trial. More than 70% of respondents disagree it’s easy to find housing (Berlin 79%; Hamburg 74%; Cologne 73% vs. 34% globally) — in Berlin, 42% even disagree completely (vs. 12%).
“Housing availability and affordability is in a crisis situation and needs to be addressed quickly.” – US American in Berlin
The limited digitalization sees expats dissatisfied with the availability of administrative/government services online, setting up high-speed internet access at home, and cashless payments — these three factors all rank in the bottom 10. In Hamburg, for instance, 31% of respondents say it’s difficult to pay without cash (vs. 8% globally). And while unrestricted access to online services isn’t included in the bottom 10, this factor still performs poorly: Berlin’s 34th place is the “best” ranking of the three cities.
What makes these essentials more difficult to navigate is the language barrier. Berlin is the only city of the three where it is marginally easier to get by without speaking German (36th vs. Hamburg 48th; Cologne 52nd). The language is also rated as difficult to learn by 68% (Cologne) to 71% (Berlin) of expats.
Trends in the Top 10
- Ras Al Khaimah
- Abu Dhabi
- Dubai
- Panama City
- Muscat
- Jeddah
- Alicante
- Doha
- Mexico City
- Riyadh
The top 10 of the Expat Essentials Index is mostly populated by cities in the Middle East. Muscat (5th), Jeddah (6th), Doha (8th), and Riyadh (10th) join Ras Al Khaimah (1st), Abu Dhabi (2nd), and Dubai (3rd).
Like in the Emirati cities, Housing, Language, and Admin Topics are hardly an issue. But the unrestricted access to online services in the other four Middle Eastern cities is ranked in the bottom 10. And the Digital Life Subcategory in general performs poorly in Muscat, in 44th place.
From the Americas, Panama City (4th) and Mexico City (9th) nab two spots. The only European city in the top 10 is Alicante (7th).
These three cities present with similar challenges in the Digital Life and Admin Topics Subcategories; particularly in Mexico City, which ranks 34th and 30th, respectively. However, Housing is an easy topic, ranking in the top 10 for all three — Panama City even places 1st for this subcategory.
In the 2024 Expat City Ranking, Panama City and Jeddah are new entries, while Mexico City and Riyadh improve in their ranking to make the top 10, having placed 26th and 11th in 2023, respectively.
Trends in the Bottom 10
- Istanbul
- Milan
- Paris
- Dusseldorf
- Rome
- Frankfurt
- Munich
- Cologne
- Hamburg
- Berlin
Besides Istanbul (44th), all cities in the bottom 10 of the Expat Essentials Index can be found in Europe, with six of them in Germany: Dusseldorf (47th), Frankfurt (49th), and Munich (50th), Cologne (51st), Hamburg (52nd), and Berlin (53rd).
The only German cities with some subcategories that escape the bottom 10 are Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. Dusseldorf’s 31st place for Housing is the “best” rank out of the six cities, and Frankfurt isn’t far behind in 37th place.
Housing also performs better in Rome (24th) and Istanbul (26th). In Milan, Language (34th) appears to be less of an issue, whereas Paris offers the “best” Digital Life (35th).
There’s not much change in this year’s bottom 10 ranking, except for the additions of Cologne and Dusseldorf, which are new to the 2024 Expat City Ranking.
The Biggest Winners in 2024
Mexico City is the biggest winner in the Expat Essentials Index, having climbed 17 spots from 26th place in 2023 to enter the top 10 (9th). The biggest change is in the Language Subcategory: the city jumps 25 spots to land 3rd.
Impressively, the city also left the bottom 10 for Admin Topics (30th in 2024) and Digital Life (34th). Noticeably, dealing with the local bureaucracy has improved, from 73% negative ratings in 2023 (vs. 38% globally) to 52% in 2024 (vs. 42%).
Vienna and New York City leave their below-average performance behind to land in above-average territory. From 36th and 31st in 2023, they now rank 21st and 17th, respectively.
For Vienna, the biggest improvement is in Digital Life (from 36th to 21st). In 2023, 61% of respondents rated the availability of online government services positively (vs. 60% globally). In 2024, this share increased to 74% (vs. 58%). Whereas in New York City, Admin Topics is the most improved subcategory (38th to 23rd), as it’s become easier to open a bank account, for example.
The Biggest Losers in 2024
In terms of the biggest loser in the Expat Essentials Index, Vancouver is awarded this title for dropping from 28th place in 2023 to rank 41st. Housing has gotten more difficult to find (48th) and is extremely expensive (53rd): 92% of respondents there rate its affordability negatively (vs. 47% globally) — 62% even rate it as very bad (vs. 16%), when in 2023 this share was 51% (vs. 14%).
The ease of getting a visa to move to Vancouver also plummeted from 27th in 2023 to the bottom 10 (45th) in 2024. More than a third of expats (36%) find it difficult to obtain (vs. 26% globally).
Barcelona and Stockholm both drop 12 places to rank 32nd and 29th, respectively. In Barcelona, Digital Life suffered (from 17th to 25th) and in Stockholm it’s Admin Topics (21st to 37th).
In particular, the ease of dealing with the local bureaucracy and opening a bank account took a hit in the Swedish capital. For instance, around two-thirds (66%) rated the local bureaucracy favorably in 2023 (vs. 39% globally), one year later it’s down to 48% (vs. 36%).
Full Ranking
