Perhaps more than other residents of a country expats are acutely aware of the quality of life offered by their surroundings. Moving constantly from place to place, comparisons are naturally made, not just between home and the current country of residence but between several countries ‘abroad’. Unlike a two-week holiday on the beach when we say I would love to just move here, an expat’s decision to move is normally based on professional criteria.

Often we are posted somewhere that might not perhaps be first or even second choice. Expatica covers Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. And so we decided to ask a series of questions, designed to find out what international professionals think of their surroundings and how they measure their quality of life in general. Liveability and well-being were combined in a survey that went to the very heart of what it’s like to be an exile.

The respondents were split between the genders, 59.6 percent female to 40.4 percent male and just over 53 percent had spent between 4-6 years in the new country.

We asked our users to qualify a variety of aspect of their lives. When asked "How would you qualify the quality of affordable housing in the country that you work?" around 50 percent found it acceptable. As for local services, including Health care 45 percent answered Good and only 16 percent found them Bad. Over 50 percent found the quality of food (supermarkets, etc) Good and only 10 percent believed that the Air Quality was Bad, with 50.9 percent considering it Good.

Public transport came out well at 55.4 percent positive and only around 14 percent had a negative experience. Perhaps surprisingly 58.5 percent found the drinking water good. Around the same number rated local entertainment highly. Qualifying the quality of children’s education was more mixed, split almost evenly been Good and Acceptable but with only 10 percent unhappy.

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