A country in Central America has been named as one of the friendliest places to move to as an expat, as other destinations in the Americas also rank highly among those who have moved abroad.

More than 12,500 expats from around the world responded to a survey run by online expat community InterNations, sharing their thoughts on what it is like to live and work abroad.

Representing 175 nationalities living in 174 countries or territories, the expats ranked the best and worst cities and countries for quality of life, working abroad and how easy it was to settle into their new home.

The latter – ease of settling in – was composed of three categories: what it was like to find friends in the local area, to what extent the area felt welcoming including how easy it was to immerse themselves in local culture and how friendly the local population is.

In the 2024 survey, a total of 53 destinations met the minimum sample size of 50 respondents, so these countries made it onto the index.

One country out of the 53 came out as the undisputed winner of the Ease of the Settling In Index: Costa Rica, which ranked highly in all categories.

Respondents found that the country was very welcoming, with 88 per cent agreeing – which is 25 per cent higher than the average welcoming levels across the globe.

Some also said that it was easy to get used to the local culture, with over a third (35 per cent) agreeing with this point, compared to the average 21 per cent across the world.

It was the friendliness category, however, that made Costa Rica stand out, with 90 per cent of respondents saying that locals were friendly in general as well as towards foreign residents.

One Canadian expat said: “The locals are generally gentle, lovely people. You learn to adapt to a ‘Pura Vida’ life in Costa Rica”.

In second place is Mexico, a country that has yet to drop out of the top three for ease of settling in since the first year of the survey in 2014.

Over four in five expats said they feel welcome in the country and agree that locals are friendly towards foreign residents.

The respondents also ranked it as the easiest country worldwide to integrate into the local culture, as well as 73 per cent saying they are happy with their social life in Mexico.

Moving away from the Americas, third place went to the Philippines, where it also ranked the year prior.

Expats find the country very welcoming, with 85 per cent saying so and 78 saying they also feel at home.

A British expat expressed they “love the free and easy lifestyle. Everybody is open for a chat”.

In Mexico, 31 per cent of expats say their friends mostly consist of Mexicans, while this number rises in the Philippines to 41 per cent – both a lot higher than the 17 per cent global average.

The survey also revealed the countries that expats struggled to settle into. Kuwait ranked last out of the 53 countries on the index, with just over a quarter (26 per cent) saying they feel welcome in the country, while the country also ranked last in terms of its local friendliness.

In 52nd place is Norway, where expats say it’s difficult to make local friends (67 per cent), meanwhile Germany ranked at 51st due to 32 per cent of expats not feeling welcome as well as the culture taking some getting used to.

Half of the top 10 can be found in the Americas: Brazil (5th), Panama (7th), and Colombia (8th) joining Costa Rica (1st) and Mexico (2nd).

Meanwhile, nine of the bottom 10 countries in the index are found in Europe.

Top 10 countries that are easiest to settle into

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