How does Spain compare to other countries for its welcome to expats?
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An annual survey by the global expat network InterNations ranked Spain as one of the easiest countries in the world to settle into for expats.
To compile The Ease of Settling Index, InterNations members scored 53 countries under three categories; Finding Friends, Culture and Welcome, and Local Friendliness.
The survey placed Spain in the top ten in two of three categories. Its highest ranking was 6th out of 53 countries in the Culture and Welcome category. This category considers whether expats feel welcome and how easy it is to adjust to the local culture.
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Spain also ranked 10th in the Finding Friends category. This category reflects whether expats living in Spain are happy with their social life and have been able to build a social support network.
The category in the Ease of Settling In Index where Spain didn’t rank in the top ten was Local Friendliness, where Spain ranked 14th. Although fairly self-explanatory, this category considered the friendliness of locals both towards expats and to others.
Spain’s performance in the three categories was just not quite enough to earn it a place in the overall top ten for ease of settling in, ranking 11th overall.
The undisputed winner overall was Costa Rica, which ranked number one in two of the three subcategories and was placed in the top ten for all.
Half of the countries in the top ten of the Ease of Settling In Index were in Central and South America, notably Costa Rica (1st), Mexico (2nd), Brazil(5th), and Panama (7th).
If you are considering a move, Mexico has been placed in the top three for Ease of Settling In since InterNations began conducting this survey back in 2014.
The only European country beating Spain and being included in the index’ top ten was Greece. After Greece (10th) and Spain (11th), the only European countries in the top 20 were Portugal (15th) and Cyprus (17th).
In fact, an incredible nine of the bottom ten countries in the Ease of Settling In Index are found in Europe. These included Denmark (45th), Switzerland (46th), Sweden (48th) Austria (49th), Finland (50th) which has also fallen 19 places since 2023’s survey, Germany (51st), and Norway (52nd).
The survey found that ‘expats don’t feel welcome, struggle to get used to the culture, can’t seem to make local friends and find the population to be rather unfriendly’ in these countries.
When put into this context, Spain’s performance suggests it provides a much better welcome to expats than the majority of its European counterparts.