Taiwan has been named the number one destination for expats a survey by online community global expat community website InterNations.

Taiwan is one of four Asian countries in the top ten with perennial top ten regular Singapore (in 6th), joined for the first time by Vietnam (up from 14th in 2018 to 2nd) and Malaysia (up from 17th to 9th). The Expat Insider 2019 survey - conduced through InterNations - is one of the biggest of it kind with more than 20,000 respondents. Eight of the ten best-rated destinations (pictured in the image below) already featured in the 2018 top 10.

All four Asian destination do very well for personal finance — Singapore (16th) ranks worst — as well as ease of settling in, where results range from Malaysia's 3rd place to Vietnam's 15th. However, Malaysia (24th) and Vietnam (42nd) cannot compete with Taiwan (3rd) and Singapore (4th) regarding the quality of life.

Rise of Portugal

According to the survey, Mediterranean destinations Portugal (3rd) and Spain (5th) continue to impress expats with the quality of life (ranking 1st and 2nd, in that category respectively) and the ease of settling in (4th and 8th).

While both rank in below average for working abroad (35th for Portugal vs. 37th for Spain), they differ vastly in the Family Life Index: with its 5th place out of 36, Spain does much better than Portugal (18th).

2018's number one Bahrain, still features in the top10 but drops to seventh place.

Kuwait Kuwait ranks last once again, a position it also held in 2018 and from 2014 to 2016. It still places last and second to last for the ease of settling in and quality of life, respectively, though it has improved for personal finance (from 50th to 38th in 2019). Results for working abroad remain bleak, though: Kuwait places 60th. While expats are mostly satisfied with the state of the economy (63% positive ratings vs. 63% globally) — the majority (59%) moved there for work-related reasons — 36% are unhappy with their work-life balance.

All in all, Kuwait is the country expats would recommend the least.

Italian woes

Italy may be new to the bottom three, ranking 63rd out of 64 in 2019, but it has never made it out of the bottom 10, InterNations said.

As in 2018, it is ranked worst for working abroad (64th) and personal finance (62nd). "It's very difficult to start a career or find any type of work with a decent income to raise a family," a US American respondent told the organisation. Half the expats in Italy (50%) are dissatisfied with their career prospects; an even larger share (58%) rate the state of the economy negatively.

The quality of life (49th) and ease of settling in (47th) fare slightly better, though Italy still performs well below average in both indices. The same is true for family life, where it places just 31st out of 36 countries.

After not featuring in the 2018 survey due to an insufficient number of respondents Nigeria (62nd out of 64) once again ranks third to last, as it did in 2015, 2016, and 2017. It continues to perform satisfactorily when it comes to personal finance (20th) and the ease of settling in (31st), but this cannot make up for expats' dissatisfaction with working in Nigeria (53rd) and the local quality of life (64th).