Vietnam in top 10 world’s best places for expats: international survey

Vietnam is ranked the 10th best place in the world for expats, according to the recently released 2021 Expat Inside Survey by InterNations, considered the biggest global expat community.

Map of the best and worst places for expats in 2021. — Photo courtesy of InterNations

The survey delivers insights on 12,420 respondent expats’ satisfaction with the local quality of life, ease of settling in, working life, personal finance, and cost of living in 59 countries.

All three places in Asia – Vietnam (10th place), Malaysia (4th), and Taiwan (1st) – got the thumbs up from the expat community for the local cost of living and impacts on personal finances, but other indices vary.

Vietnam comes first in the personal finance index and the cost of living index, and has consistently been among the top 10 since 2014.

“Three-quarters of expats in Vietnam (75 per cent) say that their disposable household income is more than enough to cover everything they need for daily life (versus 52 per cent globally). In fact, 90 per cent say it is enough or more than enough (versus 77 per cent globally),” the survey reads.

Nine per cent of expats in Vietnam say their gross income is more than US$250,000 a year – compared to 3 per cent globally, which is attributed to the fact that 45 per cent of expats here move to the country for job-related reasons.

For the Working Abroad Index, Vietnam got 9th place, after Taiwan in 1st place, mainland China in 4th, but ahead of Norway (11th), Sweden (20th) or Singapore (30th).

The survey includes a quote from an US American expat stating: “I like the cheap cost of living, friendly people, good food, relaxed atmosphere.”

The Quality of Life index in Vietnam was poorly rated, ranking only 53rd globally, with problems like air quality, water and sanitation infrastructure, plastic pollution appearing to be among the highest concerns.

However, the lion’s share of the expats in Vietnam (85 per cent) still sees their life in the country as “generally happy,” higher than the 75 per cent globally.

In the subsets for life quality index, some figures are worth mentioning – personal happiness of expats in Vietnam is at 15th position globally, while feeling of safety and security is at 31st, health and well-being at 46th, whereas travel and transportation, digital life and environment quality are towards the bottom of the ranking – at 51st, 54th and 57th respectively, according to the report.

Regarding the Ease of Settling In index, Vietnam was ranked 25th globally, lower than Mexico (1st), regional peers like the Philippines (7th), Taiwan (13th), Thailand (20th) and Singapore (22nd), but higher than places like the USA (26th), United Kingdom (31st), Hong Kong or mainland China (at 38th and 39th).

In the index, Vietnam secured ninth place for ease in making local friends.

VNS