Who are you? The results of the 2011 Expatica Survey.

You are a woman in your early forties who works at an international company and lives with her partner and 0.9 children. No? Read on for a more in-depth interpretation of the results.

Age and gender

Your average age is 44 years, but the most represented age bracket is 30-39, and women are in a small ‘lead’ (54 percent).

How old are you? (%)

Where have you been and where are you going?

Our first finding is this: most of you are veterans.

While some of you are quite new to the country (14 percent have been here for less than a year), the majority have been around for over five years (53 percent).

How long have you lived here? (%)

You might think that this means you are mostly settled where you are now, which may be true – and it may not be. Only about a quarter of you have plans to stay in the country for more than five years, and just as many have plans for a shorter period of time. The rest simply "don’t know" yet.

How much longer do you plan to stay here? (%)

These results are not too surprising in light of another finding: this is not likely to be the first country you’ve moved to. In fact, with the exception of about 10 percent, you have lived in at least one other ‘foreign’ country, and many of you have lived in several.

How many other foreign countries have you lived in (min 6 months)? (%)

You are not afraid of packing up and moving on (or back home) – it is now only a question of whether you will want to.

Why are you here?

You may wonder then – what is driving all of you to make a new move?

With almost 40 percent overall, work appears to be the dominant reason for your move. However, two other broader categories clearly figure: way of life (‘quality of life’ and ‘international experience’ add up to 45 percent) and love (partner’s work and citizenship add up to 33 percent).

Why did you move here? (%)

What are you doing here? Part 1: Work

Not surprisingly, most of you work for an international company. You are generally at higher positions in the company (most of you are senior staff) and you are most likely to have at least a Bachelor’s degree (38 percent), and potentially a Master’s (30 percent) or a PhD (8 percent).

As you can see in the graph below, you work in a variety of sectors, with IT in a small lead.

What sector do you work in? (%)

What are you doing here? Part 2: Away from work

A large majority of you live with a partner (71 percent) and about half of you have children (two is the most popular number).

How many children do you have? (%)

And, finally, here is what you like doing with your free time: reading, traveling and watching a good film.

Expatica editorial team