The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Philippines placed eighth in the 10 best place for expats offering comfortable retirement lifestyle, supported by hospitable Filipinos, according to InterNations’ Expat Insider Report 2023, an annual survey of expats living and working abroad.
While the Philippines ranked poorly in terms of quality of life, working abroad and in providing essentials to expats, the country ranked third in ease in settling in and personal finance indexes.
Mexico, Spain and Panama top the list for best places for expats, while Turkey, Norway and Kuwait are the three worst places for expats.
The survey included such factors as quality of life, ease of settling in, career prospects, personal finance and expat essentials life digital connections.
Nearly nine out of 10 expats rate the general friendliness of local residents positively, close to 20 percentage points more than the global average of 67%. The destination also ranked high when it comes to finding friends. Over seven in 10 expats in the Philippines said it is really easy to make local friends here. In fact, 44% said their friends are mainly locals.
It added that 79% of the expats feel at home in the Philippines against 62% globally and 88% feel welcome here, versus the global average of 67%. One American expat said, “What I like best about the Philippines are the friendly people and the relaxed lifestyle.”
The survey also showed 66% of expats said their disposable household income “is more than enough to lead a comfortable life. According to 21%, it is even a lot more than enough.”
The country also ranked ninth in terms of work and leisure, but 51st in terms of career prospects. Still, “expats in the Philippines see a purpose in their work and are overall happy with their jobs.”
Among the major reasons expats moved to the Philippines are romantic reasons, instead of job-related reasons. “Only around a third of expats are doing paid work. In fact, almost half are retired. Still, of the few who are working, 29% are top managers/executives.”
There were 12,065 expats with an average age of 46.2 years surveyed for the report. They represent 171 nationalities living in 172 countries worldwide, 50% of whom are male and 49% female. At least 82% of the expats have a university degree, 57% are in a relationship and the rest are single, with only 20% having dependent children living abroad.