European countries repel with high prices.
The largest global expat community, InterNations, has published its annual Expat Insider 2025 report — one of the most detailed studies on life abroad. This year, it included 46 countries that are the most comfortable in terms of work, life, and adaptation for foreigners. The leaders of the ranking are Latin American and Asian countries, while Europe is at the bottom of the list.
Most of the bottom ten of the ranking consists of European countries: Italy (37th place), Sweden (38th place), Norway (39th place), the United Kingdom (41st place), Germany (42nd place), and Finland (43rd place).
European countries show excellent results in sub-rankings for ecology and environmental conditions, but significantly lag behind others in other parameters. Expats in these countries complain about high prices, low availability of medical and public services, as well as difficulties with language adaptation. For example, in the United Kingdom, immigrants are dissatisfied with healthcare and high housing costs. In Italy and Germany, expats face challenges with digitalization and administrative issues.
"Wealth alone does not make a person happy, especially if all the earned money is instantly consumed by the high cost of living," said InterNations editor-in-chief, Catherine Chudoba, who organizes the expat survey and ranking.
She also noted that none of these countries made it to the top of the sub-ranking for personal happiness. In this parameter, Italy holds the best position among European countries that made it to the anti-top 10, ranking 26th.
Newcomers to the bottom ten of the ranking in 2025 are Sweden and South Korea. "South Korea faced the sharpest decline in our rankings this year, which is related to deteriorating indicators in almost all areas of our research," said Chudoba, highlighting issues in healthcare, safety, political stability, and financial comfort for expats.
As part of the research, InterNations highlighted a separate sub-ranking of countries with the highest quality of life — one of the key indices of Expat Insider 2025. It reflects how comfortable it is for expats to live in a given country: ecology, safety, availability of healthcare, transport, leisure, and overall life satisfaction are assessed. This year, Spain again took the lead, maintaining its first place in quality of life among expats since 2022. Here, 84% of immigrants are satisfied with their lives — significantly higher than the global average of 67%. The country attracts with its comfortable climate, rich culture, active nightlife, and numerous opportunities for sports and recreation. More than 80% of respondents believe that Spain has accessible, affordable, and quality healthcare and good public transport.
"The quality of food, healthcare, transport, and ecology is excellent," commented an expat from the USA on his life in Madrid.
The UAE ranks second in quality of life. The main advantage of the Emirates is safety, which all surveyed expats noted. Other positives mentioned by respondents include political stability and the quality of healthcare, although they believe its cost is high.
As with the anti-top 10, most countries in this ranking are European: Spain is the leader of the sub-ranking, Austria (4th place), Luxembourg (5th place), the Czech Republic (8th place), and Portugal (10th place). However, despite demonstrating good results in various positions, they have weaknesses. For example, Austria does not perform well in safety and political stability, while Luxembourg has poor leisure options. The Czech Republic and Portugal lag in healthcare quality.
China significantly improved its position in 2025, rising to sixth place, while it was only 19th in 2024. The country has become much safer and improved its leisure quality indicators. Expats across China praise the speed and quality of public transport and the efficiency of online shopping, which saves a lot of time.
"If you bought something and want to return it, just leave it at the door, and they will pick it up," says Dutch expat and travel blogger Chris Oberman.
Another major plus for China is career opportunities for immigrants. Respondents also noted that work is fairly compensated here. "Career growth prospects in the eyes of expats have improved, job security has become higher than a year ago, and even the work-life balance has improved," noted study author Catherine Chudoba.
The main Expat Insider 2025 ranking combines all key indicators: from quality of life and financial well-being to ease of adaptation and career opportunities. Most places in the top ten are occupied by Latin American and Asian countries.
Newcomers to the top 10 are China (6th place) and Malaysia (10th place). Together with Thailand (4th place), Vietnam (5th place), and Indonesia (8th place), all these countries represent a block of Asian countries that occupy half of the list.
For the second year in a row, Panama ranks first in the best countries for expats. 94% of expats who moved to this country are satisfied with their lives there. This is the highest figure among all participants in the ranking. Life in Panama is especially liked by retired expats — 35% of respondents from this country are already retired. Of these, 18% stated that they moved specifically to complete their professional journey.
In terms of quality of life, Panama ranks third, as there are many travel opportunities, affordable and cheap public transport, beautiful nature, good food, and plenty of opportunities for sports. Immigrants did not face problems with visas and housing, as well as with work when relocating.
More than a third (35%) of expats plan to stay in Panama for life. In comparison, only 24% of immigrants worldwide want to live in the country they moved to until old age. This decision is influenced by the hospitality and friendliness of the locals, as well as incomes that are sufficient for a comfortable life.
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