InterNations Survey 2018: The Netherlands “one of the top places for expats in the world”

In the annual survey by expat network InterNations, the Netherlands did not top any categories, but scored well when it comes to economy and job security, education, and the digitalisation of government services.

InterNations is a global network for expatriates that was founded in Germany 2007 which currently has 3.4 million members. The group organises social events and provides insights for people who are moving abroad.

The group recently published the results of their Expat Insider 2018 survey, which relied on participants rating up to 48 aspects of their lives abroad. The main categories in the survey were quality of life, ease of settling in, working abroad, family life and personal finance. According to the group, 18,135 internationals participated in the 2018 edition of the survey.

The survey results determined the top expat destination based on their overall ranking, and Bahrain topped the list for the second year in a row. The Netherlands comes in at 16^th, but was the 8^th most common country of residence. Dutch nationals are similarly outwardly mobile: they are the 10^thmost common expatriate passport, which is notable given the small population of the Netherlands.

The highest scoring categories for the Netherlands were “economy and job security” – the country came in 4^th place behind Luxembourg, Germany and Norway) – and “education”, where the country also came in 4^th.

Whilst the Netherlands did not top any individual categories within the survey, the country nevertheless scored consistently high. It is in the top 10 countries for “work/life balance” and “working conditions” and also landed in the top ten for several categories related to the internet, namely freedom of internet access and government services online. The Netherlands was ranked in the top 20 countries for “safety and security”, “travel and transport”, and “quality of life”.

The overall picture of the Netherlands based on its survey performance is that of a modern and economically competitive country with a good work-life balance. One result that may come as a surprise to those among us still working on our Dutch skills was that the Netherlands came in 15^th overall in terms of ease of language acquisition.