Asian expatriates rank Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra among the best places to live in the world, but Singapore tops the list for its safe and clean environment, a new survey shows. The three Australian cities have made it into the top 10 list of cities favoured by Asian expats, said ECA International, a human resource consultancy for multinationals. But Singapore came out on top overall because of its infrastructure, low crime rate and clean air, said Lee Quane, general manager of ECA International. Hong Kong, which competes with Singapore as a location for banking and financial services, was ranked 15th.


“While Hong Kong has seen an improvement in some categories, such as personal security, air pollution remains the biggest cause for its lower rankings relative to Singapore,” Lee said. For locations in China and India, Shanghai and Chennai (138th place out of a total of 300 locations) came in top for Asian expats, said the annual survey.

European expats ranked Copenhagen as their top choice to live in the world. They placed three Swiss cities - Geneva, Basel and Bern - and three German cities - Dusseldorf, Bonn and Munich - in their top ten. East European cities such as Bratislava and Bucharest have made improvements in this year’s survey because of advances in security, housing and health, the survey said.

European expats rated Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, as their 20th choice and Romania’s capital of Bucharest in 14th place. In the Middle East, Manama, the capital of Bahrain, ranked top in the region along with Dubai and Muscat. Baghdad, in last place globally, lost marks for poor security, the survey said.

Top 10 best locations in the world for Asian expats:

1. Singapore

2. Sydney

3. Melbourne/Kobe, Japan

5. Copenhagen in Denmark

6. Canberra

7. Vancouver, Canada

8. Yokohama, Japan/ Wellington, New Zealand

10. Dublin, Ireland

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