InterNations’ ‘Expat Essentials Index’ addresses four key areas of the expats’ lives when they resettle abroad: dealing with administration, digital life, finding housing, and coping with the language. The ‘Admin Topics Subcategory’ covers the ease of opening a bank account, getting a visa, and dealing with local bureaucracy. Topics included in the ‘Digital Life Subcategory’ are the ease of paying without cash and getting high-speed internet access at home, as well as unrestricted online access and the availability of digital government services. In the ‘Housing Subcategory’, respondents were asked to rate the ease of finding accommodation as well as its affordability. Finally, the ‘Language Subcategory’ covers the ease of living in a particular destination without speaking the local language(s) and how easy it is to learn it/them. In total, it questioned 11970 expats representing 177 nationalities in 181 countries, but there were only enough participants (minimum of 50 per country) to include 52 countries in the final results. Denmark has finished mid-table (29th), worst among the Nordics, whereas fellow Nordic nations Norway (15), Finland (21) and Sweden (26) fared better. It is a commendable reversal for Sweden, which tends to fare badly in most InterNations surveys assessing how happy expats are.
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