92% of expats in Spain satisfied with life, poll finds

The latest InterNations Expat Insider 2016 survey has found that almost all of the expats who live in Spain are overall satisfied with their life there.

The annual poll, released this week, revealed that Spain’s major attractions – its warmth, its landscape, its family-friendly atmosphere and its accessibility – were the main reasons why expats moved to, and subsequently settled in, the country…

Ranking 14^th out of 67 countries polled, Spain was one of the best performers across a variety of metrics, but was let down by poor employment opportunities, with only 42% of respondents saying that they felt “overall positive about their career prospects” in the country. The global average for this category was 55% but, given that many expats move because of their job, Spain’s below-average score on that front is a little misleading.

Indeed, when ranked purely on the reasons why Spain exerts such pull on expats, the country scored favourably. More than three-quarters of respondents agreed that Spain was “generally easy to settle down in” (above a global average of 59%), with 86% of the opinion that “general friendliness of the population in Spain is overall good”.

As for that excellent Spanish weather, a massive 84% of those polled said that the climate in Spain is a positive factor of life in the country, with a rather amusing 1% of respondents revealing that, since arriving in Spain, they are not actually happy with the weather.

The survey quizzed more than 14,000 people comprised of 174 nationalities and living in more than 191 countries globally. Those countries that elicited more than 50 responses were ranked, hence the 67 in the final table, which was topped by Taiwan, then Malta, Ecuador, Mexico and New Zealand.

After Malta, Austria, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, Spain was one of the most favoured European destinations, and is certainly the most popular – so given the sheer volume of respondents speaking about Spain, the fact that the country is almost universally loved by expats is something of a minor miracle.

But then again, you look around – at the beaches, the mountains, the stunning cities, the warmth of the people, the infrastructure and the improving economy – and you realise: there really are few better places to move to.