'Choice Cities': Which are the best places for expats to live and work in 2022?
With emigration becoming an increasingly popular choice amongst students, families, not to mention, working professionals, the question that arises is which cities around the world are the best for expats to move to?
To find out which cities around the world are the best for expats looking to relocate, online language learning platform Preply has ranked 60 of the most popular destinations on 11 relevant relocation metrics, including:
- Cost of living - the average monthly expenditure as an expat
- Salary - the average monthly salary after tax
- Income tax - the estimated amount of tax paid on $50,000
- Rent - the average monthly rent cost of a 1 bedroom apartment in the city centre
- Connectivity - the average internet speed (Mbps)
- Things to do - the number of top-rated attractions
- Dining out - the average cost of a meal at an inexpensive restaurant
- Saftey - the cities safety score (0-100, 100 being the safest)
- Visitor return rate - the percentage of visitors that came back to the city for a second time
- Co-working costs - the average monthly cost co-working space
- Learning the dominant language - how many hours to learn the dominant language fluently
As per these indicators, Kuala Lumpur is the best city for expats to live and work in 2022
With an overall expat relocation score of 6.62 out of 10, the Malaysian capital ranks as the best city in the world for expats. Monthly living costs for relocators amount to around £903 and with the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom property in the city centre being £363, this leaves plenty of disposable income leftover to enjoy all that Kuala Lumpur has to offer.
When it comes to leisure, there’s plenty to keep you busy in Kuala Lumpur. The city boasts over 322 activities such as theme parks, cave tours, and visits to the famous Petronas Twin Towers. Business professionals and remote workers will also appreciate Kuala Lumpur’s affordable coworking spaces, with the average cost being £76 per month, the lowest out of the top 20 cities.
Tbilisi (Georgia) is at second place, followed by Lisbon, Dubai, and Bangkok
The Georgia capital follows closely behind in second place with an expat relocation score of 6.58.
It is more expensive for expats compared to Kuala Lumpur, with the average person bringing home a monthly salary of £372 after tax and a one-bedroom apartment in the city centre costing around £580. However, Tbilisi is one of the safer cities out of all those ranked, with a good city safety index of 74.5 out of 100.
Tbilisi was followed by Lisbon, which also ranked well for safety. Dubai and Bangkok came in fourth and fifth, with expat relocation scores of 6.45 and 6.35 respectively.
Manchester best city for expats moving to the UK in 2022
Despite no UK cities making the global top 20, Preply also created the UK expat index ranking 35 of the UK’ biggest cities on eight relevant metrics, from the cost of living to the number of tourist attractions.
With a near perfect expat relocation score of 9.4 out of 10, Manchester is the best city for expats moving to the UK. The city has a relatively high average monthly salary of £2,192 after tax paired with a monthly living cost for expats (£2,113). This makes Manchester more affordable than the country's capital, which only ranked in 20th place on its ranking.
In London, you can expect to pay a huge £3,120 on living costs each month as an expat, this, paired with the city's high rent (£1,823) and lower than average internet speed (9 Mbps) reduces its expat relocation score to 5.07 out of 10.
With one of the fastest internet speeds in the country (57 Mbps), Manchester is great for remote workers who rely on the internet on a day-to-day basis. However, those wanting to rent a co-working space will find Manchester to be the most expensive city for this, with the average monthly cost being £256.
The second-best UK city for expats is Portsmouth, where the average monthly salary is £3,592 and rent for a 1-bedroom city centre property costs just £682. Portsmouth is also safer than Manchester, with a city safety index score of 54.06 compared with Manchester’s 44.46 out of 100.