Emigrating from your home country to a new one can be quite a gamble. There are a lot of questions that go through your mind when you buy that one-way ticket. Will you love your new home as much as the old one? How will your habits change? Will you make friends? I should know. I did it myself in 2021, emigrating from the United States to Portugal to complete my Ph.D. While life in Lisbon has been nothing short of spectacular so far, there are other destinations around the world where my fellow expats seem to be even happier.
After digging into the data and learning more about the responses, InterNations named Malaga, Spain as the best place in Europe to live as an expat.
“According to respondents, Malaga is the top-ranked city in the world for local friendliness (1st): 89 percent say locals are particularly friendly to expats (compared to 65 percent globally),” the results showed. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that the city also ranked 2nd for making friends.
Málaga also scored highly in the Quality of Life Index, coming second, thanks to its consistently good weather and abundance of natural spaces to explore. But there’s more good news for living in Spain: two other Spanish cities – Alicante and Valencia – came second and third respectively.
“What these three Spanish cities have in common are top 10 rankings in the Ease of Settling In, Quality of Life and Personal Finance indices,” InterNations said in the report. “This translates into welcoming cultures that allow for an enjoyable and affordable life. Malaga and Alicante also make the top 10 for expat essentials such as housing.”
As for the less spectacular places to live, respondents ranked Rome second to last and Milan last, both scoring below average for quality of life and job availability. However, this shouldn’t put you off if you’re thinking of moving to either of these Italian cities. After all, life can’t be that bad in a place that values pasta and pizza so highly.