What makes a city a dream destination for expats? InterNations, the world’s largest expat community, reveals Valencia, Alicante, and Vienna top their list for their exceptional quality of life, excellent health care, and abundant leisure options.
Researchers evaluated 53 cities across six key metrics, such as environment, climate, and health care, to identify the best places for expats. Here’s a closer look at the top 10 cities expats rave about.
Valencia, Spain
Expats rank Valencia, Spain, as the top-rated city to live in. The city leads in quality of life, environment, and climate while scoring highly for travel, transit, and health care. Valencia is also in the top 10 for leisure, safety, and security.
9 in 10 expats praise Valencia’s climate, weather, natural environment, and travel opportunities. InterNations finds that 27% of expats choose Valencia to improve their quality of life.
The city’s modern infrastructure, reliable public health system, and low crime rates contribute to its high quality of life.
Alicante, Spain
Expats rank Alicante, another Spanish city, as the second-best place to live. Alicante ranks highly for quality of life, health care, environment, and climate.
The city is one of Spain‘s most affordable seaside options and ranks highly for health care and leisure.
Expats express concerns regarding political stability. The city also falls outside the top 10 for safety and security. However, that doesn’t deter 36% of respondents from living in Alicante for over 10 years.
Vienna, Austria
Vienna’s third-place ranking comes as no surprise. According to Mercer, the city regularly ranks highly for quality of life. Often regarded as one of Europe’s most picturesque destinations, expats rate Austria’s capital highly for travel and transit, health care, environment, and climate.
Meeting Vienna says Vienna ranks first overall for travel and transit due to its “outstanding and easy-to-use transportation system.” 9 in 10 expats also express satisfaction with the affordability of public transport in the city. However, the city falls short of the top 10 for safety, security, or leisure options.
Madrid, Spain
Spain strengthens its dominance, with Madrid securing fourth place. Expats praise it for its leisure options, health care, quality of life, and travel and transit. Madrid ranks in the top 4 for half of all evaluated categories.
The Spanish capital ranks first for leisure options thanks to its sheer volume of attractions and activities. Regarding travel and transit, Madrid has one of Europe’s most extensive and efficient public transportation systems. For longer-distance transport, it is the central hub for Spain’s high-speed rail network (AVE) that connects many major cities.
Málaga, Spain
Málaga, another Spanish city, is fifth-best in the world for expats. It scores fifth for leisure options, seventh for health care, and ninth for environment and climate. Known for its beautiful beaches, like La Malagueta, Málaga also ranks fifth for quality of life.
However, it falls outside the top 10 for travel, transit, safety, and security, lagging behind Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao. Many residents rely heavily on private vehicles. Despite these challenges, Málaga is among the safest Spanish cities, with a low crime rate of 29.8.
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo is the first city outside Europe to make the top 10. The capital of Japan lands among the top 10 for travel and transit (third), health care (fifth), and quality of life (sixth).
Tokyo’s reliable public transportation system significantly influences its high travel and transit score. Go Tokyo highlights multilingual signage, which has made traveling around the city less stressful for visitors and residents.
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Despite broader criticism of the UAE’s human rights record, Abu Dhabi earns seventh place. The country is in the top 10 for quality of life, travel and transit, health care, and safety and security.
The capital of the United Arab Emirates ranks fourth in health care. According to the Abu Dhabi Residents Office, it is the first country to have over 200 accredited health facilities. Abu Dhabi also has low crime rates, world-class infrastructure, and no income tax.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dubai, also in the United Arab Emirates, claims eighth overall. It ranks eighth in quality of life and among the top 10 for leisure options. The city ranks 15th for travel and transit, 17th for health care, 6th for safety and security, and 23rd for environment and climate.
Dubai’s lower environment and climate scores reflect its rapid urbanization and the challenging desert climate. In 2024, the city experienced deadly storms.
Zurich, Switzerland
Low crime rates, solid democratic institutions, and a clean environment make Zurich a safe place to live. The city also ranks fourth for environment and climate and ninth for quality of life.
Zurich ranks 13th and 20th in health care and travel, respectively, but 40th for leisure options. Even so, the city remains a top choice for expats.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen ranks first for safety and security and 10th for quality of life. The Danish capital also ranks in the top 20 for transit, travel, health care, environment, and climate. Numbeo’s crime index ranks Copenhagen among the safest European cities with the 22nd lowest crime rate.
