Poland drops in expat ranking

Poland dropped by 25 spots in the latest Expat Insider ranking to 49^th place. The survey analyzes the quality of living of foreigners in different countries across the globe in five main categories: quality of life, ease of settling in, working abroad, personal finance, and family life. Overall, 71 percent of respondents were generally satisfied with living in Poland, which is 10 percentage points less than in 2016. Survey respondents are particularly unhappy with the quality of the environment with 54 percent rating it negatively. Air pollution was one of the main things foreigners complained about. According to survey respondents, the general friendliness of the population, as well as the welcoming attitude toward foreign residents, has suffered quite a bit. While 68 percent rated the general friendliness of the population positively in 2016, only 56 percent made the same assessment this year. Results look similar for the friendly attitude toward foreign residents in Poland. Survey respondents describe Polish people as having “not the most open culture towards foreigners”, and only 53 percent rate this aspect positively, compared to 68 percent in 2016. What’s interesting, more and more expats are struggling with their finances. Even though 75 percent of respondents claim that their disposable household income is enough or even more than enough to get by, last year it stood at 86 percent. Bahrain was this year’s ranking leader, followed by Costa Rica, and Mexico. Out of European nations, Portugal was ranked the highest (fifth). On the other spectrum were Nigeria (63^rd place), Kuwait (64^th), and Greece (65^th, last place).