Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has been chosen as the best city to live in among 57 other cities worldwide, but on what basis?

The survey by InterNations with a total of 12,000 respondents has collected their satisfactory rates across four main categories which are:

• Quality of urban living
  Leisure and climate, transportation, safety and politics, health and environment

• Getting settled
  Local friendliness, feeling welcome, friends and socialising, local language

• Urban work life
  Job & career, job security, work-life balance

• Finance and housing
  Finance, housing

Compared to a total of 57 cities worldwide, Kuala Lumpur is the top city chosen by expats in terms of living and working abroad in 2021. Respondents of the survey have agreed that it is easy to get settled and make friends in not only Malaysia, but also in the top three cities ranked in this survey.

Surprisingly, contrasting with the local residents, they are also satisfied with the cost of living here!

Let us go through the top 10 cities that have been chosen as the world’s best cities to live in.

1. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

“It’s easy to live here, and the people are wonderful!”

• 91% agreed that it’s easy to find homes in KL, receive stellar ratings for finance & housing
• 78% are happy with the cost of living
• 78% likes the quality of local medical care
• 75% expats are happy with working hours
• 72% find work-life balance in Kuala Lumpur

2. Malaga, Spain

• 86% likes the leisure options
• 82% are happy with their income
• 80% loves the weather
• 78% are happy with their social life
• 69% agrees that it’s easy to make new friends

3. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

 “As a woman from a country where there is a lot of crime, safety is a big deal to me,”

• 97% feel safe in Dubai
• 84% finds it has a stable environment
• 94% agrees that language barriers are uncommon, you don’t need to learn local language to settled there
• 81% finds local residents are friendly towards foreign residents
• 70% agrees that it is easy to  get used to local culture

4. Sydney, Australia

• 89% likes the quality of medical care
• 82% are happy with life in general
• 78% likes the work-life balance
• 77% are happy with their job
• 53% agrees that making friends are easy

5. Singapore

• 89% likes the quality of medical care
• 78% happy with work-life balance
• 71% happy with their job
• 56% agrees that making new friends is easy

6. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

• 88% respondents are happy with their job
• 84% happy with the cost of living
• 79% likes the work-life balance
• 77% say making friends are easy

7. Prague, Czech Republic

• 84% are happy with the medical care
• 79% likes the work-life balance
• 74% respondents like their job
• 61% are happy with the cost of living

8. Mexico City, Mexico

• 75% are happy with the cost of living
• 73% says making new friends is easy
• 71% are happy with their job

9. Basel, Switzerland

• 92% likes the quality of medical care
• 79% happy with their job
• 76% happy with their work-life balance

10. Madrid, Spain

• 89% likes the quality of medical care
• 68% says making new friends is easy
• 66% are happy with their work-life balance
• 60% are happy with their job

Meanwhile, the bottom 10 cities in the ranking list are:

• New York
• Moscow
• Maastricht 
• Paris
• Cairo
• Tokyo
• Istanbul
• Johannesburg
• Milan
• Rome