An African country has beaten the UK as the place with the best quality of life for expats

desmond frimpong

September 27, 2017 12:31 PM

Brexit made Britain fall

South Africa is the best place to live in Africa as an expat, that is according to HSBC’s 10th annual “Expat Explorer: Broadening Perspectives” survey.

The Expat Explorer league table ranks each country or territory using a score that summarises expats’ overall views of that destination.

On the survey, Britain fell 13 spots, to number 35, in the rankings for the best places in the world to live as an expat while South Africa topped Africa and also ranked the 33rd best place to live as an expat.

Brexit has been identified as the cause of Britain falling on the Expat Explorer league table.

In 2016 South Africa was still the world's 33rd best place for expats.

HSBC hired Britain’s YouGov polling agency to survey nearly 28,000 adults expats in 159 countries and territories in March and April.

In all 27 questions were asked across three subindexes: economics, experience, and family.

The three subindexes were then collated and used to create an overall ranking based on an average score, given out of one.

For the third year running, expats have crowned Singapore the best overall destination, ranking consistently high across a range of economic, experience and family criteria.

The report says a key reason expats love Singapore is the bumper salaries; 73% say they can earn more there than at home, 42% say their annual income has increased since moving there, and 65% said they have more disposable income than at home. The average wage is around $118,000 a year.

Here is the full survey

desmond frimpong