This survey comes from the responses of over 14,000 expats from all over to all over. Not just Americans abroad, but Germans in Brazil, Japanese in Canada, French in Hungary, etc.
How did Hungary do?
In the category, Working Abroad, Hungary came in 25th out of 67 countries overall. Looking closer, for Job & Career, Hungary came in 9th, Work-Life Balance 7th -- looking good so far! But on Job Security came in 46th. For comparison:
Working Abroad - Overall
1st: Luxembourg
2nd: Taiwan
3rd: Germany
25th: Hungary
26th: USA
65th: Brazil
66th: Italy
67th: Greece
In the category, Quality of Life, Overall, Hungary comes in a respectable 20th out of 67 countries. Looking closer, Leisure Options, Hungary came in at 17th, Personal Happiness at 13th, Travel & Transport at 11th, Health & Well-Being at 39th, and Safety & Security at 38th.
Again, looking at Quality of Life comparisons:
Overall Ratings:
1st: Taiwan
2nd: Austria
3rd: Japan
20th: Hungary
35th: USA
65th: Kuwait
66th: Mozambique
67th: Nigeria
In the category, Ease of Settling In, Overall, Hungary comes in 51st, mainly due to difficulties with language. Feeling Welcome, Hungary is 32nd, Friendliness 46th, Finding Friends 38th, but Language comes in at 67th out of 67!
Looking at Ease of Settling In comparisons:
Overall Ratings:
1st: Mexico
2nd: Costa Rica
3rd: Uganda
21st: USA
51st: Hungary
65th: Denmark
66th: Saudi Arabia
67th: Kuwait
Referring to Finances, for Personal Finance, Hungary comes in 4th, Cost of Living, Hungary is 6th, and Housing Affordability, Hungary is 3rd.
If the reason of your move is Love, Hungary scores 7th in the category, "Most Satisfied with Relationship" -- interestingly, there is a gender split here with women much more satisfied than men respondents in Hungary. In regards to social life / local culture in Hungary, 23% of women stated this aspect of expat life is a "piece of cake", while only 9% of men agreed.
Hungary was one of the largest movers in the survey, moving up 8 spots from 2015's survey results.
Hungary was the 21st most popular destination; and showed a very strong increase as a place to "Build Your Career" (from 52nd place to 27th). Other big climbers in this category were Romania and India, gaining 20 and 27 positions respectively. Hungary also saw large increases in Personal Finance and Cost of Living rankings, along with Russia and Malta. Hungary went from 27th to 4th place! (Malta went from 42nd to 6th place, the largest increase). Roughly 30% of Expats in Hungary stated that they were "Completely Satisfied" with their financial situation -- an almost 20% increase over 2015. This also split down gender lines with 77% of women expressing optimism regarding their career prospects but only 48% of men. Interestingly, more men than women stated they have more than enough disposable household income (40% of men vs 10% of women).
The whole survey is publicly available if you'd like it (all 188 pages!). It definitely points to the fact that no one place can be all things to all people, and many areas do one or two things extremely well (Nordic countries do extremely well in family life categories, for example) but never all areas. Overall, I think this is an interesting report showing great optimism for Hungary.
What do you think?