Portugal is the best country in Europe for expats to live in a new survey by Expat Insider has found.

The results of the survey found that not only was Portugal the best place for expats in Europe it was also sixth overall out of 68 countries in the survey for 2018.

Among the reasons that helped to push Portugal to the top of the rankings was the high quality of life experienced in the country and the ease people found in settling in to the community combined with friendly local residents.

While Portugal was an attractive choice for many, the country was seen as difficult when it came to having a successful working life and this could be linked to low wages when compared to other European countries in the survey.

The survey found that the top 10 destinations for expats are Bahrain, Taiwan, Ecuador, Mexico, Singapore, Portugal, Costa Rica, Spain, Colombia, and Czechia. 

Nearly all expats (94 percent) in Portugal rate the climate and weather positively (as opposed to 61 percent globally).
But only 39 percent of expats living in Portugal are happy with their career prospects, which is 16 percentage points less than the global average (55 percent).

A total of 62 percent of Portuguese expats find it likely that they will return to Portugal in the future compared with 43 percent globally.

The ranking comes after Portugal was found to be the most welcoming country in 2017 and this is also echoed in the survey with 87 percent of expats stating that they found the attitude of local people towards foreign residents as friendly – putting Portugal a massive 21 percentage points above the global average.

Only Taiwan came out as having a better quality of life than Portugal with 98 percent of expats saying that they felt satisfied with the quality of life in the country, compared to a global average of just 82 percent.

The overall findings found that 91 percent of the expats in the country were generally satisfied with their life in Portugal.