Dubai and Abu Dhabi are among the world’s 20 best cities for expats

Based on InterNations, a group for expatriates and international minds, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are among the world’s best 20 cities.

Results for 66 cities worldwide were obtained from than 15,000 expat survey respondents. That data pool reflected the opinions of 173 nationalities on more than 25 aspects of urban life quality including ease of getting settled, safety, friendliness of fellow residents, sustainability, jobs, finance and housing.

Abu Dhabi ranked relatively high in most categories across the board but scored big points for its friendliness and safety. The super low crime rates obviously have a lot to do with this. The Finance & Housing Index is Abu Dhabi’s second-biggest strength. While 70% say it is easy to find housing, only 28% find it affordable. Nonetheless, 63% are satisfied with their financial situation, about the same as the global average (61%). Dubai ranks 20th out of 66 in the Expat City Ranking 2020. In the Getting Settled Index, the city is even the number one for the ease of living abroad without local language skills. Maybe this is one reason why expats are happy with their social life in Dubai and consider it easy to make friends.

Dubai also performs better than average in the Quality of Urban Living Index. Respondents consider it the third-safest city worldwide, after Tokyo.