Lisbon ranks 3rd in Expat City Ranking
The Expat City Ranking for 2020 has ranked Lisbon in third place out of a total of 66 cities.
The Expat City Ranking is based on the annual Expats Insider Survey by InterNations. The top ten cities were as follows; Valencia, Alicante, Lisbon, Panama City, Singapore, Malaga, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid and Abu Dhabi.
The extensive survey gathered the opinions of some 15,000 expats, representing 173 nationalities and there were a total of 181 countries or territories that were analysed in detail from the data collected from expats about various different aspects of their life. The respondents additionally had to give their opinions on the city they were currently living in and had roughly 25 different measures of urban life abroad to provide information about and give a ranking on from one to seven.
InterNations is considered to be the world’s largest expat community with roughly four million members and the Portuguese capital makes it into the top 10 for three of the survey’s five indices: getting settled (3rd), quality of urban living (4th), and the local cost of living (6th). In terms of the getting settled index in which it comes third, 82 percent of expats feel at home in the city versus 64 percent globally. Expats felt that their quality of living was high as it was marked 4th due to 79 percent being happy with their social life versus 59 percent globally and this highlighted how much expats enjoy living in Lisbon. Additionally, Lisbon ranked 5th in the Leisure and Climate subcategory with 89 percent being satisfied with what the capital’s leisure options. What really ranked highly was the weather and climate subcategory whereby 96 percent of expats were happy with the city’s weather and climate. Moreover, nearly all expats in Lisbon, a massive 99 percent, feel that their personal safety is second to none versus 82 percent globally.
In terms of what the City ranked lower in was the local cost of living, whereby Lisbon came sixth and exposed how expats are unhappy with the state of the local economy, on the other hand they are happy with their work and life balance, giving it a slightly mixed reaction. Lisbon ranked 27th in the finance and housing subcategory as 19 percent were unhappy with the local economy and three in eight expats find it hard to find housing (37 percent), similarly the same percentage are unhappy with the career opportunities that the city has to offer.

Author

Following undertaking her university degree in English with American Literature in the UK, Cristina da Costa Brookes moved back to Portugal to pursue a career in Journalism, where she has worked at The Portugal News for 3 years. Cristina’s passion lies with Arts & Culture as well as sharing all important community-related news.

Cristina da Costa Brookes