Over 87 million folks are estimated to reside as expats throughout the globe, and plenty of of them have moved abroad searching for a greater high quality of life.
Worldwide consulting agency Mercer not too long ago ranked Zurich as the perfect location for expats primarily based on financial, social, and environmental components.
The corporate launched its annual High quality of Residing Metropolis Rating, evaluating cities with the perfect residing circumstances for worldwide employees. Mercer considers components corresponding to political stability, well being care, training, infrastructure, and cultural surroundings.
“This 12 months, Zurich, Switzerland, takes the highest place, fueled by its excellent public companies, low crime charges, and a energetic cultural scene, all backed by environment friendly infrastructure and a dedication to sustainability,” the report reads, declaring that the Swiss metropolis has added a number of new direct flight routes to and from different continents bettering its connectivity.
Switzerland’s largest metropolis serves as a world monetary hub the place over 400,000 folks, or about 28 p.c of its inhabitants, are foreign-born. It’s divided into 12 districts, with the Outdated City courting again over 2,000 years at its coronary heart.
Earlier this 12 months, Zurich was additionally named the world’s smartest metropolis for its progressive integration of latest applied sciences, which improves city life. The distinguished Economist Intelligence Unit highlighted it because the third most livable metropolis in 2024, with excellent scores within the training and healthcare classes.
Nonetheless, should you’re contemplating shifting there, understand that it has additionally repeatedly ranked as certainly one of the priciest cities on the earth. Mercer identifies it because the third most costly place to reside, behind Hong Kong and Singapore.
Switzerland has probably the most cities — 4 — among the many prime ten in Mercer’s 2024 report. Geneva climbed two spots this 12 months to 3rd place, whereas Bern and Basel improved their standing by 4 and at the moment are ninth and tenth, respectively.
Vienna, which topped the rating final 12 months, dropped to second place in 2024. Nonetheless, the Austrian capital provides a very good stability of high quality of life and affordability, because it ranked twenty fourth for price of residing.
Auckland (fifth) and Vancouver (seventh) are the one non-European cities within the prime ten. Boston (thirty second) is the highest-ranking American metropolis on the record, which highlights 241 cities worldwide.
The worst cities for expats this 12 months are Bangui, Central African Republic (239th), Baghdad, Iraq (240th), and Khartoum, Sudan (241st).
You’ll be able to learn the whole report and its findings on mercer.com.