Female expats prefer relocating to Thailand and Asia

If you are dreaming of an international relocation from Austria to a new country, have a look at a recent global survey about expat living, conducted by InterNations. This survey has compared the satisfaction levels of men and women in the expatriate community. For both female and male expats, Ecuador is the number one destination. Apart from that, men’s and women’s preferences for international relocation destinations differ widely: Women are favouring a relocation to Thailand while men prefer relocating to New Zealand or to Panama. Looking closer to the results referring to about 60 countries as moving destinations, we can also draw the conclusion that there exist gender preferences: Thailand, Hong Kong and Arab countries are considered more attractive by female expats, while men have a stronger preference to countries in northern Europe and Latin America.

Some of the findings from the Expat Insider 2015 survey are that the general satisfaction with work and life in the Arab countries is considerably higher among female expatriates, although the region is host to more male expats than expat women. To pick out the United Arab Emirates, they are ranked 13th by women, but only on 28th position for men: one factor is that twice as many men find the cost of living not favourable (10 percent versus 5 percent of women).


Regarding Thailand nine out of ten women find it easy to settle down in Thailand and three out of four female expats consider the Thai culture easy to get used to. On the other hand Thailand only ranks 13th for men. About 75% of male expats think that the locals are friendly towards foreigners, compared to 85% rating by female expats.

For more detailed findings, please review the Expat Insider 2015 survey.