Australia tops British Expat Quality of Life Index again

[Admin]

The Latest 'Quality of Life' report was released this week by Natwest International Personal Banking and as last year, Australia has retained it's number one ranking.

 

The sixth annual survey of British expatriates revealed 80% of expats believe they enjoy a better 'quality of life' living abroad.

 

Australia, Canada and New Zealand have topped the Quality of Life Index over the past 5 years.

 

For British expats who have chosen to permanently live abroad, over 70% feel their work/life balance is good to excellent and over 85% believe their standard of living is tops.

 

Over 80% of British expats in Australia cite the 'natural environment' and 'quality of life' for their children as the number one reason for moving here.

 

The global Quality of Life study of British expatriate opinions and attitudes on lifestyle, employment and financial status reveals 84% British expats in Australia say the weather is one of the top five reasons for living there and 92% percent of expats cite the overall lifestyle keeps them in Australia.

 

73% of expats, their health has improved whilst living there.

 

British expats in Australia are financially confident and, whilst some restrictions exist, find buying a property attractive and relatively easy.

 

71% own a property (compared to the global expat average of only 33%).

 

While the majority of people say that the improved quality of life is their main motivation for staying, the lower cost of living is a factor too with the majority rating their cost of living as very good.

 

In July 2012, Australia marked 21 years without a recession, an achievement unmatched by almost any other developed country.

 

Dave Isley, Head of NatWest International Personal Banking, comments: “It seems life down under really is the cream of the crop according to this year’s NatWest IPB Quality of Life Index. Continual sunshine coupled with a strong economic stability make Australia the perfect destination for Brits to set up home. Factors such as an efficient health care system, low crime rates, a clean environment, good education, civic engagement, and a longer-than-average life expectancy also factored in the high scoring.”

 

UK expats in Oz - The majority of expats (74%) are in professional/managerial occupations while 19% are self-employed professionals and 28% have taken up clerical positions.

[Guest BurgessFamily]

Would be interesting to know the stats for those that arrived over 10 years ago, and those that arrived in the last 5 years. Would there be any difference?

[jim and adel]

The Latest 'Quality of Life' report was released this week by Natwest International Personal Banking ...

 

Do you know where I can access the report? Hard to find any firm data for it apart from this and other similar press releases (there wasn't much to be found on the previous reports that have been conducted now that I think about it). I know it's done in conjunction with the Centre for Future Studies but its website is useless. One reference I have seen states that 'over a 1,000 people surveyed', and given that it covers 10 destination countries this might mean as few as 100 in each place, which is small. Some of those surveyed were tranferees with UK companies working abroad, so expats certainly but not typical migrants. I also read that it splits expats into certain groups and in one group more than half said they planned to return to live in the UK at some point, which makes me wonder why, if their lives are so good, they'd want to do that.

 

Hard to comment on it further without seeing a few details about how this was conducted.