When you’re considering moving to another country, one of the big things you think about (at least I do) is the quality of life you’ll be leaving and what you’ll find in your new home. As 2011 has drawn to a close, let’s take a quick look back at the year’s top picks in various expat-oriented “Best of” lists.

Quality of life means different things to different people. For example, I’m typing this at my son’s dining room table, in the mountains of Vermont. It’s cold (temperatures have been in the single digits), it’s snowing, and it’s gorgeous. He has a great quality of life here and loves it.

I moved away years ago because the quality of life here didn’t work for me during eight or nine months out of every year.

So as you read through these lists, remember that what’s perfect for you might not work for me and vice versa.

Top 10 Cities for Quality of Life, from Mercer’s Quality of Living Survey

First, the annual Mercer’s Quality of Living Survey, which ranks world cities on a number of factors. They’ve done an odd little thing with the numbering this year, as several cities tied for various positions.

Europe ran away with the honors here, without any real competition.

• #1 Vienna, Austria
• #2 Zurich, Switzerland
• #3 Auckland, New Zealand
• #4 Munich, Germany
• #5 Dusseldorf, Germany
• #5 Vancouver, Canada
• #7 Frankfurt, Germany
• #8 Geneva, Switzerland
• #9 Copenhagen, Denmark
• #9 Bern, Switzerland
• #11 Sydney, Australia

Of the cities regularly mentioned as good destinations for expats, only Singapore (#25), Dublin (#25) and Paris (#30) made this list. Partly this is because all the cities on this list are relatively expensive.

The top US city is Hononlulu, Hawaii, at #29.

Top 10 Cities for Personal Safety

1. #1 Luxembourg
2. #2 Bern
3. #2 Helsinki
4. #2 Zurich
5. #5 Vienna
6. #6 Geneva
7. #6 Stockholm
8. #8 Singapore
9. #9 Auckland
10. #9 Wellington
11. #11 Copenhagen
12. #11 Dusseldorf
13. #11 Frankfurt
14. #11 Munich
15. #11 Nurmberg

You can find the complete information for both these lists at here. Or view the first list as a slideshow here.

10 Best Cities for Quality of Life in 2011, from the Economist

You’ll see some similarities to the list above. Europe is well represented on this list, while Canada, Australia and New Zealand have a few spots as well.

1. Vancouver, BC, Canada
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Vienna, Austria
4. Toronto, ONT, Canada
5. Calgary, Alberta, Canada
6. Helsinki, Finland
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Perth, Australia
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand

Read more about this list here.

Countries with the Best Quality of Life, Nation Ranking

I had questions about the methodology of this list, as did many others, but I’ll share it with you again for what it’s worth.

1. Iceland
2. Norway
3. Sweden
4. Switzerland
5. Luxembourg
6. Austria
7. Finland
8. New Zealand
9. Germany
10. Canada

You can find more information about the methodology and other aspects of the list here

International Living’s List of 10 Best Places to Retire in 2011

Every year International Living publishes a list of best places to retire as well as quality of life. Last year I thought their quality of life list was way off track, so I won’t even reproduce it for you here. However, here’s their list of best places to retire.

1. Ecuador
2. Mexico
3. Panama
4. Spain
5. New Zealand
6. France
7. Uruguay
8. Costa Rica
9. Malta
10. Italy

You’ll find more information about the list here.

Best 20 Countries to Retire in 2011, Live and Invest Overseas

These are not ranked in any particular order, and the list includes countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

• China
• India
• Laos
• Malaysia
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Croatia
• France, particularly the Languedoc and Aquitaine regions
• Ireland
• Italy
• Spain
• Argentina
• Belize
• Brazil
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Uruguay

You’ll find more about this list and the conference where it was announced here.

Do you live, or are you planning to live, in one of the cities or countries on these lists? Does it offer you the quality of life you expected?

photo by Emmanuel Dyan on flickr

An organization called Nation Ranking recently released its 2011 Quality of Life Index. One hundred thirty-seven countries were ranked according to:

“a nation’s livability for its average inhabitant. It is a composite of six sub-indexes, each describing one of the elements which objectively influence the quality of life: health, education, wealth, democracy, peace and environment.”

You can find the entire report here. I’ve pulled out the Top 10 for you in the overall Quality of Life and several of the sub-categories.

Countries with the Best Quality of Life

1. Iceland
2. Norway
3. Sweden
4. Switzerland
5. Luxembourg
6. Austria
7. Finland
8. New Zealand
9. Germany
10. Canada

Additional rankings that might interest you: Australia is #14, France is #15, the United Kingdom — current scene of riots — comes in at #19, the US at #31. Expat haven Costa Rica is #36, Panama #44, Malaysia #50, Thailand #71. Not surprisingly, the bottom 10 include Haiti, Afghanistan, and eight impoverished African countries.

Also interesting to me are the sub-rankings.

Health

Factored into the Health index were life expectancy at birth, infant mortality and access to health care. “Mortality amenable to health care (when available)” was also a factor.

1. Singapore
2. Iceland
3. Japan
4. Australia
5. France
6. Canada
7. Switzerland
8. Spain
9. Israel
10. Sweden

The UK comes in at #18 here, and the US is #39 (behind Slovenia, Cuba, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Chile, Bosnia, Serbia and Kuwait).

Education

This one was full of surprises, for me at least. The study looked at the adult literacy rate, school life expectancy and PISA results (when available). The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is a set of standardized tests given to 15-year-old students throughout the world. Including those results for some countries but not for others might account for some of the surprising rankings.

1. Finland
2. S. Korea
3. Canada
4. New Zealand
5. Cuba
6. Estonia
7. Netherlands
8. Australia
9. Switzerland
10. Germany

One of the surprises was #11, N. Korea. I really don’t understand how any educational system that relies on basically fabricated versions of “history” can get good grades. . .

The UK was #17, the US #22.

Democracy and Peace

Results were based on Freedom House and Global Peace Index studies.

Not too many surprises here. The Scandinavian countries scored highest in the Democracy category, with the US, Canada and the UK at #15, #17 and #17 respectively (there were several ties).

Countries without standing armies scored highest for Peace — New Zealand, Iceland, Japan, Austria and Norway were the top five. Canada was #14, Australia #19, the UK #31, and the US came in at #81. Last were Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan and Pakistan — again, no surprises.

Environment

Again, not many surprises here. Iceland claimed the #1 spot, followed by

1. Iceland
2. Switzerland
3. Costa Rica
4. Sweden
5. Norway
6. France
7. Austria
8. Cuba
9. Colombia
10. Finland

The UK was #12, New Zealand #13, Panama #21, Mexico #37, Canada #40, and the US straggled in at #52.

photo by o pallson on flickr

Were you surprised by any of these results? If so, which ones?

Wow! The January, 2011 International Living just arrived in my mailbox and I am speechless. . . stunned. They’ve named the 2011 Top Quality of Life countries and they’ve put the USA at the top of the list.

Since I saw the article, I’ve been thinking and doing more reading, because my level of “stunned” has not gone down. How could International Living, which usually is right on target, be so far off on this one?

Now, to give them credit, they issued a bunch of disclaimers in the article. In fact, almost the entire article seemed to be a disclaimer. Which begs the question, why publish something so patently off-base that you have to use all those words to explain it away?

They describe the US as, “a clear, if uninspiring, winner.” They state clearly that the result is based solely on numbers. They explain which statistics put the US in the forefront.

They admit that “statistics don’t always reflect the reality.”

“The truth is: in dozens of other countries, ranked lower in the final count than the U.S., you can enjoy a life of equal quality — with the same levels of comfort — at a much lower cost.”

“Bear in mind that the score of 100 does not indicate perfection. It just means that the country scored highest in the category. For example, the U.S. Economy is not perfect (far from it), it’s just the highest scoring in that category. The rest of the countries are then arranged in a spread, the lower the score, the worse the country does.

“Every index is prone to a little ‘nonsense by numbers,’ which is why we include some subjectivity in ours. Statistics obtained from offialdom are not always accurate or reliable. Since the stats we gather don’t always reflect our own experience, or yours either, we sometimes interject a subjective factor to fill the gaps.”

Here are three specific items in these rankings really made me scratch my head.

Cost of Living

They give cost of living more weight (20% of the total) than any other category. According to IL’s explanation:

“This is a guide to how much it will cost you to live in a style comparable to—or better than—the standard of living you’re likely enjoying in the U.S. Our primary source in this category is the U.S. State Department’s Index of Overseas Living Costs, used to compute cost-of-living allowances for a Western-style of living in various countries. We also consider each country’s national debt.”

All the scores run from 0 as the worst to 100 as the best. The US scored a respectable 76 in this category. But what does that compare to?

Iraq and Gambia scored 100, with Afghanistan following at 99. Luxembourg scored 0. Zero! Mexico — that same Mexico that we’re being told all the time is a much less expensive alternative to living in the US — scored 77 and Ecuador and Panama both scored 78. Nicaragua, another low-cost alternative to the US, scored 85. Thailand‘s score was 77.

Huh??? So what is it? If you can truly retire in Ecuador (score of 78) for $600/month, as IL claims on a regular basis, does that mean you can live in the US (with health care!) for just a little more than $600/month? I don’t think so. . . In fact, according to these scores, Ecuador would be more expensive than the US.

If this is the quality of information the State Department offers, I say, ditch this index and find another that accurately reflects the cost of living.

Keep in mind, too, that cost of living is their most heavily weighted category. Therefore, they should make sure it’s the most accurate, but these numbers are pretty worthless.

Health

According to the detailed rankings, the US scored 90 in the Health category. Japan and France led the way with scores of 100 each. We were also beat by Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Iceland, Greece, Spain and New Zealand. And Cuba, which scored a 93 to our 90. Canada and the UK scored 84 and 82 respectively.

Here’s the methodology:

“In this category, the number of people per doctor, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people, the percentage of the population with access to safe water, the infant mortality rate, life expectancy, and public health expenditure as a percentage of a country’s GDP.”

Now, the top rankings for France and Japan don’t surprise me a bit. France’s health care has been the gold standard by which others are judged for years.

But here’s what bothers me. What good are doctors, hospitals and modern technology if they are unavailable? Over 50 million Americans have no health insurance, and therefore no practical access to health care. In Canada and Britain, health care is available to everyone. The latest and greatest in medical diagnostic tools don’t do me a bit of good if I have no means to use them. In the UK, they may not have the most up-to-date tech (or they may, I really don’t know), but since everyone has access, I’ll bet they have more successful diagnoses and better overall outcomes.

Add to that the fact that we’re facing an explosion of chronic conditions like diabetes and depression, that infant mortality rates are not good, that our life expectancy is actually declining, and it doesn’t add up to good health care.

Economy

Economy weighs in at 15% of the total score, so this is another category they really should have gotten right. They give the US economy an eye-popping, jaw-dropping score of 100. Why? Because it’s big.

What did they consider? Interest rates, GDP, and rate of inflation. What did they not consider? Employment and debt. Unemployment in the US is still at levels not seen since the Great Depression, and we’re drowning in debt. We’ve never seen so many Americans losing their homes, and the outlook in the housing market is grim for at least the next five years. The middle class is rapidly disappearing.

How does this translate into a top-ranked economy?

Contrast this with the countries seeing phenomenal economic growth right now — China, India and Brazil — which they rated 78, 64 and 58, respectively.

The Takeaway

Even honest, dependable organizations can make big goofs. I hope IL will rethink its methodologies and sources, and produce indexes in future that reflect what’s really going on in the world. The 2011 Quality of Life Index does not.

What do you think? Does this index accurately reflect the quality of life where you live?

Every year, Mercer conducts a Quality of Living survey. Results for 2010 were announced a couple of days ago.

Vienna, Austria, keeps its #1 spot for another year. Top 10 cities worldwide for quality of living are:

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Geneva, Switzerland
4. Vancouver, Canada
5. Auckland, New Zealand
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
7. Frankfurt, Germany
8. Munich, Germany
9. Bern, Switzerland
10. Sydney, Australia

The first US city on the list is Honolulu, at #31. Singapore, at #28, tops the list for Asia. Central and South America and Africa are no shows, at least among the top 50 choices.



Mercer’s results show Paris, France at #34, a far cry from France’s high rankings on most quality of life indices.

Mercer bases their rankings on “detailed assessments and evaluations of 10 key categories and 39 criteria or factors” including:

• Political and social environment
• Medical and health considerations
• Public services and transport
• Consumer goods
• Economic environment
• Schools and education
• Recreation
• Housing
• Socio-cultural environment
• Natural environment

Mercer’s goal is to help companies and governments figure out how much to pay their international employees — so they really don’t evaluate the 221 cities on their list in the same way you or I would when choosing a place to live.

You can read more about their methodology here.

This year, Mercer also provided an Eco-Ranking for the first time, rating cities on such environmental concerns as water availability, water potability, waste removal, sewage, air pollution and traffic congestion.

Top 10 Green Cities include:

1. Calgary, Canada
2. Honolulu, US
3. Ottawa, Canada
4. Helsinki, Finland
5. Wellington, New Zealand
6. Minneapolis, US
7. Adelaide, Australia
8. Copenhagen, Denmark
9. Kobe Japan and Oslo, Norway (tied)

Singapore again topped the list of Asian cities, coming in at #22. Africa was represented by Capetown, South Africa, #30. South America almost made the list, with Point-A-Pitre, Guadaloupe (one of the Windward Islands in the eastern Caribbean) coming in at #49.

While these lists provide some interesting comparisons and information, don’t take them as gospel in deciding where you might like to live as an expat.

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Expat Explorer Survey: Expat Economics

St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

HSBC has just released the first segment of its 2009 Expat Explorer Survey, Expat Economics. Over 3100 expats working in 26 countries were questioned about their financial circumstances. The survey respondents were all expats who were employed full time in their expat country. Some of the findings were no surprise, but others are worth noting.

Expats in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries whose economies are growing rapidly did well. So did expats in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. In fact, most of the positive movement was in the East.

Expats surveyed were able to save more if they were in Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India and UAE than they could at home. Expats in France, Spain, UK, Japan and the USA saved less. Disposable income was highest in Qatar, Russia, Japan, UAE and Saudi Arabia, lowest in Belgium, Australia, Germany, Canada and France.

Expats in the US and UK were most likely to cut back their spending on essentials.

The survey also looked at quality of life regionally, in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas. The report didn’t specify what the quality of life rankings included, but their results were a little surprising: Switzerland, Qatar, Russia and Mexico held the top spots for their respective regions.

The biggest surprise to me was the country that’s home to the wealthiest expats – Russia.

You can download the full report here.

Have a comment? Click the link below.

Quality of Life

In my last post, I asked the question, Why Would Anyone Want to Leave the US? One recurring expat theme revolves around “quality of life.” This is mostly subjective, and something you might perceive as positive which adds to your quality of life, might be a negative to me.

One example might be the proximity of bars and clubs. If you regularly enjoy the city’s nightlife, like to meet your friends or make new friends at clubs and dance until dawn, being close to such a great source of entertainment can contribute a lot to your quality of life. But it’s not a scene I enjoy, and I’d just as soon be far away from it.

On the other hand, living in a place where I can do a lot of walking as I go about my daily business – to the store, the post office, coffee shop – greatly enhances my quality of life. You might prefer to live someplace very different.

I would like to live where the pace is slow. I just heard about a young man who. unlike me, moved back to his native Hong Kong because the pace of life in Orlando, FL was not fast enough for him.

Some issues are important to most of us. Low crime, safe food and drinking water, a stable government, cost of living, affordable and accessible health care and quality education for our kids are universally appealing.

Some of these are quantified and published in quality of life indexes. These can be helpful, but ultimately, quality of life is very subjective.

The Global Development Research Center has an extensive list of quality of life attributes, which is well worth a look. They define quality of life as “the product of the interplay among social, health, economic and environmental conditions which affect human and social development.”

Some quality of life hot buttons change over time. Twenty-five years ago, access to good schools was one of my highest priorities. Now that my youngest has finished high school, it’s not even on my list. My three most important quality of life attributes right now are climate (I need sunshine and warm temperatures!), cost of living (so I can retire) and friends.

I’d love to hear what your quality of life hot buttons are. You can share them by clicking on the comment link below.