Where East Asian expats want to live the most: Singapore remains on top while Hong Kong sees improvements

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Mainland China's cities have climbed significantly in the rankings over the last 10 years.

Singapore continues to be the most liveable city for East Asian expats, thanks to its “excellent infrastructure and facilities, low crime rates and little exposure to socio-political tensions”, according to the latest annual Location Ratings Report from ECA International (ECA).

Coming in next, Tokyo joined Wellington and Adelaide in the second rank globally.

Looking at Hong Kong, the city has improved its liveability since 2022 due to the removal of the final COVID19-related restrictions. Though its overall ranking fell in the last five years, it remains in the top 10 most liveable Asian cities only behind Singapore, Japan, and Busan in Korea Republic, and now ranks 77^th globally.

“The intrinsic risk of disruption caused by typhoons, relatively high levels of pollution and difficulties in obtaining suitable accommodation are factors which count against Hong Kong compared to locations such as Singapore,” said Mark Harrison, General Manager for Asia at ECA.

While Singapore has held its pole position in liveability for 20^th consecutive year, the report highlighted that “other locations in the region have improved and the gap between Singapore and other locations has fallen”.

Mainland Chinese cities have climbed significantly in the rankings in the last 10 years. Some aspects of life continue to be challenging for expats, such as high levels of pollution, censorship, and suboptimal healthcare facilities – as cited by the findings. However, improvements in areas such as transport infrastructure and international schooling provision are the reason cities like Shenzhen (137^th this year compared to 152^nd a decade ago), Xi’an (163^rd this year compared to 176^th), and Wuhan (up from 160^th to 145^th) have improved in the rankings.

In Southeast Asia, lots of small but significant improvements in areas such as transport infrastructure, health services and recreational facilities in several locations have been seen, leading to these locations becoming more attractive for expats. This pattern of incremental improvement has seen the likes of Jakarta (213^th to 196^th), Phnom Penh (200^th to 184^th) and Hanoi (160^th to 144^th) climb the rankings.

Elsewhere in Asia, Yangon (Myanmar) is the location which has fluctuated most in the rankings over the past 10 years. Between 2013 and 2018 there was a significant improvement in its rankings (from 225^th to 208^th) following the reinstatement of civilian rule and strong economic growth. However, this progress was reversed when the military seized power again in 2021 and Yangon is now back down in 229^th position, lower than it was 10 years ago.

Top 20 most liveable locations for East Asian expats:

About ECA’s Location Ratings

ECA’s Location Ratings measures the overall quality of living conditions for expats in over 500 locations across the globe. Factors evaluated include climate; availability of health services; housing and utilities; isolation; access to a social network and recreational and leisure facilities; infrastructure; personal safety; political tensions and air quality. The impact of some of the factors assessed will vary according to the home location of the assignee.

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