Lisbon third best city in the world for expats
Lisbon is regularly cited for its quality of life and its international reputation is well established. The Portuguese capital has just stood out again by being ranked as the third best city in the world for expats and according to the “Expat City Ranking 2020” ranking which compared 66 cities from all over the world. Lisbob, the expatriate assistant in Portugal, tells you all about this new distinction for Lisbon.
Lisbon third best city in the world for expats - Photo by Jo Kassis from Pexels
The “Expat City Ranking 2020” ranking compares 66 cities that were analyzed in the “Ranking of cities for expats”. This ranking takes into account and evaluates five criteria considered important for expats: quality of urban life, accommodation (ease of installation), professional life, finance and housing and cost of living.
Lisbon is in the top 10 in 3 areas: it ranks 3rd for accommodation, 4th for quality of urban life and 6th for local cost of living. The capital has a less positive assessment in the categories of working life (23rd place) as well as finance and housing (27th).
In this 2020 edition of the Expat City ranking, based on the annual Expat Insider survey, respondents numbered over 15,000, representing 173 nationalities and living in 181 countries. 19% of them say they are dissatisfied with the state of the economy, but happy with the work-life balance, as well as their careers.
In detail, the majority of expats (82%) say they feel at home in Lisbon, a percentage well above the average for other cities (64%), while 79% say they are satisfied with their social life in the Portuguese capital. , much more than the average in other cities (59%).
Expats living in Lisbon are mostly satisfied with their professional situation (79% compared to 65% on average in other cities), but almost three in eight expats (37%) say they have had difficulty finding accommodation, a value higher than that observed in the averages of the other metropolitan areas analyzed (27%). Finally, 42% of expats think people are friendly towards foreign residents.
In the ranking, Valencia is placed 1st, followed by Alicante and therefore Lisbon. Malaga is 6th and Madrid 9th.