Thailand News

Thaivisa survey: Half of expats have considered leaving Thailand in the last year

Published

5 years ago

07/11/2016

Samui Times Editor

Thaivisa survey: Half of expats have considered leaving Thailand in the last year | Samui Times

A Thaivisa survey has revealed that many expats in the kingdom are not happy.

In fact half of all expats have considered leaving the country over the last year.

And of the group that has considered leaving a whopping 84% said they are unhappier than when they first arrived.

The survey seems to represent a shift in opinion from earlier in the year when Thaivisa reported that most expats were happy with their lot.

Now particularly new arrivals seem to be more miserable. Some 38% of this group who had been in the country up to three years said they were unhappier.

A similar amount said they felt about the same as when they first arrived and only 23% professed themselves to be happier than when they arrived.

The average age of expats in the kingdom is also falling according to the survey. Before it was 55 and now it is more like 50 years old.

Under 60s expats who are working appear to be the least happy with many citing the cost of living as a reason for their troubles.

Bangkok and Pattaya remain the top places for expats while Hua Hin has experienced a surge from 6% to 11.4% of the total residing in Thailand. Udon has dropped from 3.3% to 1.75%.

Earlier in the year Thaivisa was criticized after a survey announced that expats were “blissfully happy” in the kingdom. Many people went onto the forum to say that this was not their experience on the ground.

The new results issued in October seem to confirm those sentiments.

Survey Stats:

20% of this survey have been in Thailand for less than 3 years and this new group is over indexing towards retirees as opposed to a new generation of working expats coming through (versus sample averages)

Statistically, as an average, we are a little unhappier than when we first arrived here in Thailand
The under 60 year old working expat are the least happiest with 44% of this group saying they are unhappier versus sample average of 38%
- This is driven by financial status 60% saying it has become either somewhat or very difficult to afford living in Thailand over the last 12 months (versus a 42% sample average)

Perhaps the biggest figure to take from this whole survey is that almost 1 in 2 expats have considered leaving Thailand over the last 12 months
84% of those considering leaving say they are unhappier than when they first arrived in Thailand.