Singapore Beats New Zealand And Canada To Be Ranked As The Best Place To Live And Work

Our neighbours beat New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and Switzerland to emerge as the top-ranked place in HSBC's annual Expat Explorer released on 10 October.

According to John Goddard, head of HSBC Expat, "Singapore packs everything a budding expat could want into one of the world's smallest territories."

Of the 22,318 expats interviewed HSBC Expat, including over 500 who live in Singapore, many mentioned factors such as the better environment for families, the quality of childcare and education in Singapore better than that of their home countries.

According to the survey, in Switzerland, that emerged as the best-paying place, expats earned an average of USD203,000 per year, which is twice the global level. However, as the best place to live and work, Switzerland ranked only eighth, with the high cost of raising children and difficulty making friends going against it.

On the other hand, in Singapore, the average annual income of USD160,000, salaries for expats are more than 30% above the global average, the survey said.

Of those over 22,000 expats interviewed, 45% said they moved to Singapore to advance their careers and 38% said they did it to improve their earnings.

Expats who work full-time in Singapore said that their work-life balance is the same as or worse than it was back home, with 46% saying that the levels of stress at work are higher than in their home market, according to the annual survey by HSBC.

There were also concerns about the cost of living, with half of those interviewed saying they could not afford to buy property in Singapore. More than one-third were also concerned about being able to set aside enough for their retirement.