UAE Is Part Of Expats Top 10 Preferred Countries To Live And Work In

HSBC’s Expat Explorer survey has established themselves over the last ten years as one of the world’s largest and longest running research studies into expat life.  During the 10 years that HSBC has conducted the survey, the UAE has slowly been climbing the ladder and are very proud to finally hold a spot in the Top 10 this year.

The UAE climbed two spaces from last years’ 12^th place to be ranked as the tenth most desirable destination for expats.

In the 2017 survey, 27,587 expats from over 100 countries participated in the questionnaire. The top 3 spots were held by Singapore, Norway and New Zeeland.

SEE ALSO: 13 Reasons Why Being an Expat is a Pretty Amazing Thing

The study looked at three sections namely economy, experience and family lives abroad. Each of these sections had nine questions each which focussed on three different subsections.

Overall, the UAE ranked fifth in the economical section. The section covered personal finance (6^th place), local economy (7^th place) and work life (18^th place). The country was rated as the third best country to move to for an increase in income.

The experience section looked at lifestyle, the people around them and how easy it is to settle in. The UAE respectively ranked 27^th, 21^st and 16^th in the different subcategories and positioned 20^th in the overall ranking.

Lastly, the questionnaire looked at expats’ family lives abroad. More specifically, the survey looked at relationships, education and child care and lastly the impact of raising children abroad. For this section, the UAE was ranked 24^th with rankings of 18, 35 and 12 in the sub-categories.

More than half of expats living in Dubai said that they moved here to increase their salary.

This is evident with expats in the UAE receiving around USD27,000 more annually than the global expat average.

From 2016 to 2017 there was also a 10% increase in the number of expats who said that the earning potential in this region is better than their native country. Further to this, 75% of expats feel safer in the UAE than they do in their own country. 62% of expats also feel like their quality of life has improved since moving to the country and 55% say that they have a better work/life balance here.

It was surprising to see the 60% of expats have lived in the UAE for more than five years and that 92% of expats in the country are employed. The top three employment sectors in the UAE was rated as financial services, construction and engineering and marketing, media and creative.

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The UAE has been putting in a lot of effort to make this a desirable destination for expats and tourists alike. It is clear that their efforts have paid off and if they continue on this pace, they might soon be ranked as number one.

Well done UAE!