Thailand still a destination of choice for money conscious expats

Thailand remains a popular destination for expats due to its low cost of living, a new survey has revealed.

Thailand was ranked in 4th place for cost of living behind Bulgaria (1st), Mexico (2nd) and Vietnam (3rd) in the Expat Insider 2018 survey.

Thailand also ranked in 6th place in the survey’s Personal Finance Index, which is based on “expats’ perception of their financial situation and whether they consider their income enough to cover all living expenses.”

The results echo a survey carried out by Thaivisa earlier this year which revealed that many expats in Thailand are able to live on less than 45,000 baht per month.

Despite featuring highly in the Personal Finance & Cost of Living Indices, overall Thailand trailed behind other Southeast Asian nations as a popular destination for expats.

According to the survey carried out by InterNations, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia are all preferred destinations for expats in Southeast Asia.

 

Overall Thailand ranked 18th place, behind Singapore (5th), Vietnam (14th) and Malaysia (17th).

 

ASEAN countries ranked ranked below Thailand were the Philippines (28), Indonesia (50) and Myanmar (53).

InterNations revealed its findings after 18,135 expats living in 187 countries or territories completed an online survey between 15 Feb to 7 March this year.

Respondents were asked to rank a country based on a number of factors such as quality of life, ease of settling in, working abroad, family life, personal finance and cost of living.

Overall Bahrain came in 1st place for the second year in a row, followed by Taiwan (2nd) and Ecuador (3rd).

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and India were ranked in the bottom three.

You can read the survey in full here [PDF]

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