Taiwan has again been voted as the best place for expatriates to live, after claiming the top spot three years ago, thanks to its good healthcare, quality of life and job environment, a survey by the expatriate networking Web site InterNations found.
Respondents to the Expat Insider survey by Munich, Germany-based InterNations this year selected Taiwan as the top destination for expatriates, with an overall satisfaction rate of 86 percent from those living in the nation, compared with an average of 75 percent from expatriates living in the other nations surveyed.
Taiwan last year ranked second and fourth in 2017, after topping the survey in 2016.
Photo courtesy of Chen Chi-yuan
The survey asked more than 20,000 expatriates how satisfied they were with their quality of life, ease of settling in, working life, personal finances, cost of living and family life in 64 destinations worldwide.
“Taiwan offers great variety for such a small island. Nature, the culture and the people are very friendly,” said a video on the InterNations Web site introducing the survey.
Taiwan ranked third in quality of life — with 96 percent of respondents in the nation satisfied with the level of personal safety — sixth in personal finances, eighth in working life, 11th in cost of living and 14th in ease of settling in.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
As only 9 percent of respondents were raising children, there were not enough expatriate parents to rank Taiwan in the family life index, InterNations said.
Nearly 92 percent of respondents living in Taiwan agreed that the nation has a high level of medical care, while 89 percent were satisfied with its affordability, the survey showed.
“No other destination has performed better on quality or affordability since Taiwan entered the survey,” InterNations said.
Taiwan ranked second on career prospects for expatriates, with 65 percent of respondents saying that they were satisfied.
The expatriates’ high satisfaction in many areas was somewhat offset by their dissatisfaction with pollution in Taiwan — the nation ranked 35th on quality of the environment — and difficulty learning the local language — 52 percent of respondents said that they were struggling with learning Chinese.
This year’s No. 2 destination for expatriates was Vietnam, followed by Portugal, Mexico, Spain, Singapore, Bahrain, Ecuador, Malaysia and the Czech Republic.
The least favorable destinations were Kuwait, Italy, Nigeria, Brazil, Turkey, India, the UK, Greece, Russia and South Korea.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS